


Be With Me

by plumrain



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: And So Did Rey, Ben Solo Deserved Better, But I Added A Little Spin To It, F/M, Family, Force Dyad (Star Wars), Force Sensitivity, Friendship, Happy Ending, Hope, I don't like sand, Post The Rise of Skywalker, Reylo - Freeform, Tatooine (Star Wars), Trust, World Between Worlds, the happy ending we all deserved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:21:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 24,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23839792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plumrain/pseuds/plumrain
Summary: A post "The Rise of Skywalker" story.Months have passed since the end of the war against Emperor Palpatine, since Rey lost her dyad in the Force, Ben Solo, and found a new home on the Lars's moisture farm on Tatooine.Ever since she settled in on the desert planet, Rey started training a new order of Jedi, teaching them about the balance of the Force, taking her mind off of what happened on Exegol until after her lessons, because that's when she tries to reach out in the Force to search for him.For Ben Solo.But even after months of trying to reach out to him day after day, Rey still fails, believing he doesn't want to see her.She is frustrated and desperate, and about to give up hope until she finds out about a place existing within the Force, a place existing between time and space: the world between worlds.Could Ben be stuck in the world between worlds? Could he have been alive after all?And can Rey bring him back?
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 31
Kudos: 45





	1. Chapter 1

"Now close your eyes and reach out with the Force," Rey announced near the end of her lesson. "I want you to _feel_ both the light and the dark. The balance the two sides bring to the Force, to every living being in the galaxy."

It hadn't been long since the war ended and Rey had started training a new group of Jedi on Tatooine. Jedi who should understand, just like her, that there was no light without darkness and vice versa, that the two were intertwined and could not be torn apart. 

She didn't have many students, only about a handful who regularly attended lessons and were strong with the Force, but she was nonetheless happy to see their tiny faces staring up at her in amazement when she told them stories about the Jedi, the Sith and why the new order of Jedi, the Gray Jedi, was a perfect balance between both sides of the Force. 

And she was happy that she wasn't alone with her thoughts for at least a couple of hours a day. 

Because during her lessons, she wasn't constantly reminded of her loss. 

Rey watched her students, some struggling with the task while others easily reached out with the Force as if it were the most natural thing in the world to them, and she smirked to herself, thinking about the first time she had been aware of the Force, of her _own_ power. 

It had been when she had been in the interrogation chamber with Kylo Ren because she had seen the map that led to Luke Skywalker, but even though he had invaded her mind she hadn't given in to him. Instead she had pushed even further into _his_ mind, finding his deepest fear before he could pull away from trying to search her memory, panting as he had sensed what she had. Her power in the Force. 

And ever since then, she had learned more about the Force and become a Jedi, nearly the last of her kind, hadn't the Resistance won the war. 

And hadn't Ben come to her aid, they would've lost the war. 

Rey knew she had almost given up the fight against the Dark Side when she had confronted Palpatine, her grandfather, because she had wanted to stop the Resistance fleet from being killed, but when she had sensed Ben's presence, she knew that she wasn't alone. She knew that he had come to help her fight Palpatine, even though he had been on the Dark Side for many years. 

She knew then that they could defeat Palpatine together. 

Even if it meant losing her life afterwards and Ben sacrificing his own life to bring her back, only to fade away in her arms after they shared a kiss. 

Rey could taste bitter tears threatening to choke her in the back of her throat until one of Padawans, Ty, tugged on her top, snapping her out of the painful memory. "Master Skywalker, I have a question."

Rey kneeled down to face her Padawan, forcing a smile as she asked, "What is your question?"

"I wanted to ask you when we are going to build our own lightsabers?"

"Soon, I promise. As soon as everyone can find the balance in the Force we will make a trip to get kyber crystals for your sabers," she told her student and ruffled her hair. "But for now, we still have to practice without lightsabers." 

Ty sighed, and huffed a strand of her dark hair out of her face. "Alright. I hope it's going to be tomorrow though."

Rey chuckled softly and got back up, leading Ty towards the other Padawans. "I guess we'll have to see."

She watched as Ty made her way to the other children to go home, waving as they departed. 

Rey watched them until they were out of sight and sighed deeply, staring into the distance. 

Today, she was going to try again. 

Today, she was going to try to reach Ben.

Finn and Poe had just arrived on Tatooine after having to fly to Chandrila for another peace agreement meeting. Because they had been Generals in the war against the First Order, or the New Order, they had to attend every meeting with other officials, even if it often was the most annoying and obnoxious thing to do since the ending of the war. Not having to worry about being attacked was a great feeling, but finding a peace agreement among all the systems in the galaxy was difficult. Every system wanted something different when it came to weapons, trade, even what ships should be allowed. It was a very infuriating process, but at least for a couple of weeks, Poe and Finn would have their peace.

As soon as their ship touched the sandy surface of Tatooine, Finn sprinted down the ramp. He had missed Rey during their time apart and couldn't wait to talk to her. 

He felt like today was finally going to be the day he told her his secret. A secret he had been keeping for a while now.

Finn started making his way to Luke Skywalker's old home when he heard Poe ask, "Where are you headed?"

"I'm going to see Rey," he answered hastily, wanting to finally talk to her.

"You still want to talk to her about that thing you wanted to tell her on Pasaana?" Poe questioned coming down the ramp himself. 

Finn sighed, annoyed, "Are you still on that?" 

Poe shrugged, looking at his friend. "Well, talk to her if you like, but try to understand that she might not process it the way you'd like her to." 

"What do you mean?" asked Finn. 

"It seems like Rey hasn't been herself lately. Ever since the war ended, she has been sort of different. I mean, she's still Rey, but there's something on her mind," Poe explained causing Finn to think about it.

Rey _had_ been acting different lately, she was spacing out more than before and had been in her room as often as she could. Finn thought it was because she had started training new Jedi and it may have been more than she could handle since she never really took a break after the war ended. He had offered to help her, even if it only meant to watch the kids while she rested, but Rey had told him she was fine and that training the Padawans was something she looked forward to every morning. 

"I think Rey is probably just tired and she needs a friend right now. So, if you don't mind," Finn declared and Poe let him go with a sigh as he made his way back to the ship to get the stuff they needed for the night.

With every step he took, Finn could sense Rey's presence more and more. It was practically burning in the Force as he came to a halt in front of her room. 

Her door stood slightly ajar and Finn managed to peek inside at Rey meditating. 

She was floating in her room, her legs across from each other while chanting "be with me" over and over again, objects floating in mid-aid around her. 

Finn decided to knock, not wanting to shock Rey out of her state.

"Rey?" he said her name and opened the door a little more to step inside.

She didn't seem to hear him, so he tried calling her name once more, this time a little louder, but when she still wouldn't react, he decided to softly place his hand on her shoulder, to show her that he was here.

Rey immediately snapped her eyes open and all the objects that were floating before fell to the ground. Finn noticed it had taken Rey some time to realize that he was standing next to her before she was pulled out of her meditating trance and stood back on the ground. 

"Finn!" Rey greets him with a big smile and embraces him. "I didn't know you were coming so soon."

"Yeah, well, we managed to settle for at least something," he told her cooly. 

"I'm glad you did," Rey sighed staring at the clutter on the floor. 

"Is everything alright?" Finn asked, pushing back the secret he wanted to tell her. He felt that something was wrong with Rey, and when Rey was not feeling well, that was more important than a tiny secret of his.

"Oh, yeah. Everything is fine," she stated with a shrug as she picked up her books and pillows from the ground. "I was just meditating, that's all."

"Are you sure?" Finn urged. 

"Of course," she reassured him, but Finn could still sense that there was something she did not want to talk to him about. But if she didn't want to talk to him about it, he wasn't going to ask her any further. If she wanted to talk to him, she knew she could always come to him. 

"Is everything alright with you?" Rey asked looking at Finn.

Finn saw this as an oppurtinity to tell her, to finally tell her what had been on his mind for some time, but when he looked into her eyes he could see something cracking in the distance, as if she were hiding something behind a wall that was slowly crumbling.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he lied. It didn't seem like the right time to talk to her, as Poe had pointed out before. "I actually just came in here to let you know that Poe and I arrived, which, speaking of Poe, I should head back to. He said he needed some help with something."

"Oh, alright," Rey nodded starting to pick up the books and pillows on her floor. 

"You can join us whenever you can, you know that?" Finn mentioned trying to point out that they were there for her if she needed someone to talk to. 

"I know," she smiled before he left her room and shut the door behind him. 

Finn waited outside of her room for a while, hoping she might come out and talk to him, but when she didn't he decided to head back to Poe. 

She knew where he was when she needed him.

Rey slumped down on her bed, tears streaming down her cheeks from frustration. She had lost count of how many times she had tried to find Ben in the Force, but no matter how hard she tried, she never came any closer to finding him. 

Ever since he had faded in her arms, Rey believed Ben had become one with the Force and that maybe he would come and see her once she settled in on Tatooine, but after having seen Luke and Leia when she had buried their lightsabers, she had started growing worried that maybe Ben did not want to see her. 

After all, he had saved her and she hadn't saved him in return. 

But she had wanted to. Rey had wanted to give Ben some of her Force energy, she had wanted to be with him, but she had never sensed that his life was leaving him in the brief moments they had shared.

Which is one of the reasons why she needed to see him. Rey did not just want to see him again because she missed him, but also because she wanted to apologize to him for not being able to save him like he had her, she had wanted to tell him that she wanted to be with him, that she missed him. 

That she loved him. 

But it seemed like when she tried to reach out to him, he didn't want to talk to her. 

Rey let go of all her frustration and sadness that she had been holding in since that morning and started crying, her tears streaming down her face and soaking her sheets. She knew she wasn't physically alone. She had Poe, Finn and BB-8, but she still felt alone nonetheless because her dyad, her other half, her _soulmate_ had been taken away from her. And _nothing_ could take away that hollow feeling in her chest that had been there ever since he died. 

Rey felt her chest ache again. 

She felt terribly lost again, and alone. 

She continued to sob, her heart throbbing with agony with every heave of her breast when she tried to calm herself down until she felt a familiar presence in her room that caused her to stop crying.

Rey turned around to see a glowing blue figure appear in her room. 

A figure she had missed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there and welcome to my Post-TROS fic!  
> After watching "The Rise of Skywalker" in December and balling my eyes out because I was not so happy with the ending, I decided to write a story that took place after the events in EpIX.  
> I hope you enjoy!


	2. Chapter 2

" _Leia_ ," Rey whispered sitting up as the former Resistance General made her way to her, her blue, transparent figure lighting up Rey's dim room. 

"Rey, what's wrong?" she asked, her brows furrowed. "I sensed you were distressed, so I came to talk." Leia stared at Rey, waiting for an answer as she struggled where to start. 

There was so much Rey wanted to tell Leia. She wanted to tell her about her bond with her son Ben and how Ben had saved her from Snoke, how Ben had turned to the light after years of struggling on the dark side and how he had rushed to her side when she had faced Palpatine. 

But even though there was so much to say, Rey couldn't help but replay that one fatal memory in her head that had torn her apart in the first place. 

Ben's death. 

The sight of Ben fading in her arms was branded into Rey's mind. Every time she shut her eyes she saw him fall back and fade away. And it never hurt any less than when she had to witness it not so long ago. 

Tears began to trickle down Rey's cheeks as she took a deep breath to tell Leia what had been on her mind ever since she left Exegol. "It's Ben."

"What about Ben?" Leia asked searching Rey's face, concern breaking through the softness of her voice.

Rey tried to steady her breathing as she told Leia in between soft sobs, "He saved me, Leia. He _brought me back_ when I died after killing Palpatine, but... I couldn't..." she paused shaking her head at the memory burning behind her eyelids, "I couldn't bring him back. And I've been trying to talk to him like we are right now, trying to reach out to him so he could find me, but he won't come and I'm starting to believe he does not want to see me because I couldn't save his life like he had mine. Because I hadn't noticed his life fleeing from him. I hadn't noticed his life slipping through my fingers."

Leia softly shook her head, staring at Rey's hands and then into her eyes. "Rey," she began sadly, "Ben isn't with us. He isn't among the Force Ghosts." 

"What?" Rey asked in disbelief. "But he faded away. I _saw_ it. And I can't feel his presence in the Force anymore like I always could." 

Leia eyed Rey, contemplating. She knew her son hadn't become one with the Force, she _knew_ because she hadn't felt him either, not like Luke or their father, and she also knew that if Rey could not sense her son's presence anymore, that he wasn't among the living. But Leia also knew there was another place she had heard about in stories where Ben could be. A place that would explain why her son wasn't dead and why Rey could not find him. 

Yet she didn't want to be too hopeful. After all, she didn't know if that place even existed. 

"Leia, what's wrong?" Rey asked concerned. 

She sighed, looking at Rey's tear-stained face. "There's a possibility that Ben isn't really gone."

Rey's eyes lit up with curiosity at Leia's words. "What do you mean?"

"I'm saying that it may be possible that Ben is stuck in the Vergence Scatter, the world between worlds," she told her. 

"I've read about that place in my journals," Rey mentioned hopefully, "It's a place that exists within the Force and serves as a collection of doors and pathways that existed between time and space, linking all moments of time together. The entrance is a painting in the Jedi Temple on the planet Lothal. And you _really_ think Ben could be there?"

"I think there is a _possibility_ , but the temple has been destroyed a long time ago, meaning that the entrance to the world between worlds doesn't exist anymore either," Leia pointed out.

Rey frowned and furrowed her brows, clearly frustrated. "But... there _has_ to be another way. There _has_ to be another way to bring him _back_. Another way to access the Vergence Scatter. There just _has to be_."

Leia shook her head, frowning. She was sad that she couldn't help Rey any further. "Rey, I know you want him back, but _please_ don't get your hopes up. I have always wished that Ben could live a happy life, get married and possibly have a family of his own, but if there is no way to get him back through the world between worlds, then there is no other way other than to wait until you are both reunited in the Force," Leia said with a sad smile.

Rey nodded, understanding what Leia was telling her. "Thank you, Leia, for your help." 

"Always," Leia responded, placing a transparent hand on Rey's before vanishing into the Force again, leaving Rey to recap what Leia had just told her until she came to a conclusion. 

Even though Leia had told her to not get her hopes up, there still was _hope_. 

_Hope_ that she could get Ben back. 

Ben, her dyad in the Force, her other half. 

Ben, the man she loved. 

And Rey needed to try her best to bring him back.

With her mind set, Rey grabbed her journals and started her research on other possible ways to gain access to the world between worlds. 

And she wouldn't stop until she found a way to bring him back to her.


	3. Chapter 3

_Rey stood on the edge of a cliff staring down at the ocean beneath her while the cool breeze blew strands of stray brown hair into her face. She could hear porgs in the distance as the waves crashed violently against the rocky surface of the island._

_She had been here before and she had seen this place many times in her dreams when she was still living on Jakku. The planet had been calling for her back then and it was calling her once more._

_The Force wanted her to return._

_The Force wanted her to return to Ahch-To._

_Yet before Rey could make out why the Force wanted her to return to the ancient planet the scene around her began to distort and she was standing in front of the Sith-throne on Exegol. Her insides began to churn at the sight of the vile place and she began to panic._

_Rey started to run, yet as she turned her back on the throne, the ground beneath her caved in and she fell in front of a mirror, surrounded by silence and darkness. Rey sensed a familiarity of this place, she had been here before as well, and before she knew it, she placed her fingers on the surface of the mirror and was pulled into complete darkness._

_At first Rey thought she was alone and swallowed up by the void, but as soon as she felt a pull in the Force, she opened her eyes and saw a wooden door, framed with gold runes, in front of her. Both Rey and the door seemed to be floating mid-air even though she was standing on her two feet, but there was nothing around her. Just her and the door._

_She began to slowly make her way to the door, her hand outstretched to push it open when she heard an evil cackle surround her._

_Palpatine._

_Rey searched the void around her for the devious figure, but saw nothing. Instead, a deeper and darker voice drowned out Palpatine's laugh._

_"You can't hide that you are a Palpatine," Rey heard it chant as she sprinted to reach the door handle, fear and panic fueling her need to get out. But as soon as her fingers brushed against the golden handle, she saw a different scene in front of her. One that haunted her every time she shut her eyes._

_Ben was lying on the floor, his eyes shut, his face expressionless, and Rey was staring down at him with tears in her eyes and disbelief painting her face. She was griping his hand, hoping to stop him from leaving her, but his figure slowly dissolved into thin air._

_"No," Rey breathed, hot tears running down her cheeks._

_"No!"_

Rey sat upright in her bed, drenched in sweat and breathing hard. She had had another nightmare about Ben, but this one was different. Usually she would dream of their last moments on Exegol, and _only_ of these moments. But this dream showed her more. 

This dream seemed more like vision. 

But of what, Rey could not quite tell. 

She kicked away her blanket and pulled her legs to her chest, resting her forehead against her knees and sighed. She had stayed up most of the night searching for another way to gain access to the Vergence Scatter, but with no success. And the later it got, the harder it had been for Rey to concentrate and keep her eyes open. So she had decided to rest for a while before falling asleep on her journals and continue her research as soon as she woke up. 

Eyeing the suns faintly seeping through her blinds, Rey could tell that it was early morning and that she better prepare for the day. She decided that if she got up now instead of lying in bed, she would be able to read a couple more pages in one of her journals before training. 

Rey slid out of bed and opened the blinds, letting the dim light and warmth of the double suns embrace her as she began to tie her hair up into three equal buns before turning around to get dressed. 

Yet before she could make her way to her dresser, she noticed a page of one of her journals being illuminated by the Tatooine suns. 

Rey curiously picked up the sprawled book and stared at the picture. The page showed a drawing that looked like a map of portals or entryways, each one connecting planets to one another. 

She sat down on her bed, deeply involved with the information she was gathering through the pages in front of her. Rey never knew that some planets were connected to each other and that these planets could be accessed through portals. She had always thought that the only way to get to a planet was by ship. But she was proven wrong, at least for some cases. 

Rey looked at each planet depicted on the page and their connected counterpart when her eyes fell on the planet Ahch-To and its counterpart. 

The birthplace of the Jedi Order was connected to one of the oldest Sith bastions. Anch-To and Exegol were connected, like the light and the dark. 

And as Rey eyed the portal connecting the two planets, she felt her jaw drop. 

The two planets were connected by the world between worlds. 

Rey's heart stopped as she stared at the page in disbelief. She had found a clue, a hint to how she could get to the world between worlds. How she could get Ben back.

But as Rey read the rest of the page, she frowned and felt as if her only hope was slipping through her fingers again. 

Ahch-To and Exegol _were_ connected by the Vergence Scatter, but no one had ever had success in finding the entryway to the world between worlds. It seemed like it was impossible to find.

Rey set her jaw in frustration, trying to suppress her tears. The Vergence Scatter was her only hope in bringing Ben back, and now she felt like she had to start all over again.

Her lower lip trembled and she glanced at the map of connected planets, feeling as lost as she had before she found out that Ben may be in the world between worlds. She exhaled exhausted, brushing her fingers against the page, when suddenly, she was standing on the cliff again, the cool breeze brushing strands of loose hair around face just like in her dream. Rey sensed the pull in the Force again, yet before she could look at where the tingling feeling was leading her to, she was brought back to her room, her hand still placed on the page. 

Rey raised her hand, staring at the map once more, her heart pounding in her chest.

She knew what she had to do.

She knew where she had to go.

Rey managed to sneak out of the house and make her way to the Millennium Falcon without waking Finn or Poe up. Her hood was drawn, her lightsaber was latched to her belt and she had a bag packed with necessities: spare clothes and some food portions she had bought at the nearest market. The portions would last her at least a week, after that she would have to hunt for her food. But that wasn't her main focus now. What was more important was getting on the Falcon without Poe and Finn noticing. 

As soon as she reached the ship, Rey let down the ramp and peeked over her shoulder to make sure she was alone before heading into the Falcon.

Yet before she could sneak up the ramp, she heard BB-8 beeping behind her. 

Turning around, she saw the droid rolling in front of her, staring up at her.

"Be quiet, BB-8," she tried hushing it. "I need to go out on a mission and I don't want Finn or Poe to wake up..."

"What kind of mission?" Poe asked, walking up to Rey with Finn following him. 

Rey looked up from BB-8 and glanced at both of her friends, answering determined, "I'm looking for something."

Now it was Finn's turn to ask. "What are you looking for?" 

She stared at him, taking a deep breath. She had wanted to tell him what happened during her battle with Palpatine, what happened with Ben and how she and Ben were connected in the Force, but she feared he wouldn't understand. She feared that for Finn, he would always be the evil Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, the man who had nearly killed him on Starkiller Base. And Rey couldn't blame him, it had been hard for her to accept her feelings for him at first, but once she saw the good in him, the light shining brightly inside of his dark soul, she came to terms with it. Because in the end, it wasn't Ben who was evil. It was the voices inside his mind pushing him to go down a dark path, his belief that he couldn't go back to the light that were sinister, not him. 

"I can't tell you much about my mission," she lied. "It's too risky."

Finn and Poe stared at each other and shrugged. "Alright then," Poe noted passing by Rey and walking up the ramp. "Where are we headed to?"

Rey turned to look at him. "It may be difficult getting there and besides, you don't know anything about the mission, so it might be better if I go alone," she explained, trying to stop them from going with her. 

"So what?" Finn pointed out placing his hand on Rey's shoulder. "We don't care where we are going, what we care about is you and that you aren't alone in this."

Rey sighed and stared into Finn's empathetic dark eyes. "There's no way I can get you to stay, right?" she asked. 

Finn smiled shaking his head and Poe hollered from inside the Falcon, "Nope!" 

"Alright," Rey exhaled with a subtle smirk. She sometimes forgot how stubborn the two of them could be, but she knew they meant well. 

Finn made his way up the ramp and as soon as he was out of sight, Rey stared longingly at her home, hoping that when she returned that Ben would be with her and they could call it _their_ home. 

She hoped she wouldn't feel alone anymore when she returned.

"Hey Rey, are you coming or not?" she heard Poe call her from the ship causing her to chuckle before walking up to the Falcon to start her search for the world between worlds. 

To start her mission to search for _Ben_.


	4. Chapter 4

"So, where are we exactly headed to?" Poe asked, sitting down in the pilot's seat, starting to flick some controls.

Rey seated herself in the co-pilots chair, eyeing Poe as he leaned back in the spot she usually sat in. "We're headed to a planet in the Unknown Regions. A planet called 'Ahch-To'," she told him. 

"Anch-To, huh? Didn't Skywalker flee there after Ren burned down his academy?" Poe questioned. 

Rey flinched at his words. Only she knew the real story of what had happened at Luke's academy, of how Ben had been haunted by Snoke so many years and that he had been fighting the voices in his head until Luke had sensed the darkness in him, betraying Ben by thinking his mind had been made up causing him to turn. 

Rey had thought about telling her friends his story, the _real_ story, but she knew they wouldn't believe her. No one in the entire galaxy would believe her if she told the story of how the legendary Luke Skywalker had been the one who betrayed his nephew and not the other way around. 

She felt Poe's eyes on her and forced a smile before turning her attention back to the controls in front of them, hoping he hadn't noticed her reaction and her absent answer. 

And it seemed so because when she looked at him out of the corner of her eye, she watched him put in the coordinates and start the Millennium Falcon, slowly rising from the sand to fly into the atmosphere. 

Rey fell back against her seat, relieved that Poe wasn't paying _all too_ close attention to her until he asked, "So, _what_ exactly are you looking for on Ahch-To?" 

Rey glanced at him sideways and back into the starry void in front of them. "Secret Jedi stuff," she stated matter-of-factly with a gnawing feeling in her gut. 

Poe stared at her, his brows raised before he turned to face the controls again, mumbling slightly annoyed, "Well, alright then," leaving an awkward silence hanging between them.

Finn began to rummage through the Falcon as soon as they left Tattooine for food, spare clothes and possibly a blaster or two in case they needed to defend themselves on Ahch-To. He had heard of the planet before from Rey, yet never been there, so he wanted to be prepared, just in case.

Finn remembered what it was like to prepare himself for any raid when he was in the First Order and he shuddered. He thanked the Force for his strength to leave the First Order before he could have hurt people and inflict damage to the galaxy instead of fighting _for_ it. He also thanked the Force for leading him to Poe and to Rey, his best friends, his _family_. If he hadn't had found them, he probably would be hiding somewhere in the outskirts of the galaxy, far away from the First Order, far away from the Resistance. He probably would be all alone. 

But he wasn't. Instead, he played a huge role in defeating the First Order and restoring peace in the galaxy, alongside his friends. 

And that was something he would never change in his story. 

Finn began to open compartments and drawers in the Falcon, continuing his search for anything useful when he felt a sudden pull to a small compartment close to him. It was a tingling curious feeling Finn had felt dozens of times before. He knew it was the Force trying to show him something, so instead of pushing the feeling away, like he used to back when he hadn't been aware that he was Force sensitive, he went directly to the compartment and opened it to reveal a blaster lying on a black sweater, black jeans and black shoes. 

There was something familiar in the clothing in front of him, but he couldn't quite put his finger on who they could belong to. Picking up the sweater, he noticed that it was massive in size, so Finn decided it definitely didn't belong to Rey, not only because of the size but because he had never seen her wear black ever since he met her. So Finn figured the clothes could be Poe's, even though he rarely wore black too.

While further examining the sweater, he noticed a hole on the right side close to where the chest should be. Concern filled Finn's body as he thought that Poe could've been shot in a recent mission and that he had hid his clothes from Rey and him to prevent them from worrying, so Finn immediately stalked to the cockpit to confront his friend. 

"Poe, are you alright?" Finn asked as soon as he stood behind him. 

"What do you mean?" Poe questioned in return, turning his seat to face his friend, Rey following suit, her eyes widening as soon as she saw the sweater. 

Finn explained, "I found this and a bunch of other stuff in the back and seeing that this has a hole in it, I was wondering if you're hiding something from us."

Poe shook his head. "That sweater ain't mine, Finn. I don't wear black. And besides, that's _way_ too big for me."

"Well, then who's could it be?" Finn wondered aloud. 

Rey suddenly got up, staring at the floor and said, "They're my clothes," taking the sweater from Finn's hands and walking past him.

"But," he began, yet upon seeing that she already left the cockpit he mumbled, "aren't they _too big_ to be your's?"

Finn slumped down on the co-pilot's seat, staring back at where Rey went to, concern visibly painted on his face. 

"Don't worry too much about it," Poe told him, placing a hand on his knee. "It's probably not that bad."

"Poe, she didn't even _look_ at me," Finn stressed. "Rey's hiding something. I can feel it."

Rey kneeled down to neatly fold Ben's clothes back into the drawer where she kept them, running her hand across the soft fabric while silent tears streamed down her face as she remembered what it felt like to hold his hand, to be held by him as if he were about to lose her and what it felt like to feel his lips against her own. 

It was a feeling she could never have imagined in her entire life. It was the happiness and belonging she had longed for for _so long_. 

She shut her eyes and saw him again. She saw his face, his smile right before he died and tried to hold on to that feeling of happiness when they were with one another.

Rey decided to try to focus on to that feeling and reach out with the Force. She knew it was a long shot, but maybe if Ben was in the world between worlds, she could connect to him if she tried hard enough. 

But as soon as Rey tried to reach out, she was pulled back to the vision she had had when she had been dreaming. The vision of Ahch-To, the door in the darkness, Palpatine's laughter, but this time she saw herself nod while tears trickled down her cheeks, as if she were accepting a harsh reality. 

Immediately, Rey snapped out of her vision, afraid that she was going to see herself lose Ben once more or not be able to bring him back after all. And she couldn't dare watch herself lose him again. 

She shut the compartment and got up, wiping her tears away as she tried to compose herself before turning around to head back to the cockpit. Yet as soon as she spun on her heel, she saw Poe standing in front of her, his face set in a worried expression. 

She knew that he saw her crying, she sensed it as she watched him search for words, trying to break the depressing silence between them. Rey knew he felt sorry for her even though he didn't know what was going on, he felt that she was grieving, and he knew that she didn't want to talk about it. 

"I-," Poe began and exhaled deeply staring into Rey's tear-stained eyes, "I wanted to let you know that we are about to reach Ahch-To."

"Thank you, Poe," Rey sniffled, not only thanking him for telling her that they would be arriving soon, but for feeling her pain, even if he didn't know why she was hurting. 

"Hey, it's no big deal," he said and smiled softly before heading back to the cockpit to prepare for their landing.


	5. Chapter 5

Poe managed to land the Falcon safely, despite having had difficulties with the ship not too long ago, close to the sea on Ahch-To. He inhaled sharply, letting the ramp down as he glanced at Rey. 

He had caught her crying just moments before, her face glistening with tears and inhaling harsh gasps of air, yet now she wore a face set with determination. She looked as if nothing had happened before they landed, like she didn't seem like she was breaking apart when he had caught her. But even as she wiped her expression clean of any sign of sadness, he couldn't forget how scared and fragile she looked a couple of minutes ago. 

He just couldn't help but think that whatever had torn Rey apart like that had something to do with this mission. Or the clothes she had hidden in the Falcon. It seemed to Poe as if whatever she was looking for wasn't just "secret Jedi-stuff" but something personal. 

Yet he didn't want to pry any further because nothing was worse when you weren't feeling like yourself and someone was trying to find out what was going on. And besides, he knew she wouldn't want to talk about it anyways because if she had wanted to, she would've already said something by now, so he might as well wait until she either found what she was looking for or not. Either way, he would probably find out what was going on in the end.

As the three of them left the Millenium Falcon, Finn asked looking around at the rocky landscape around them, "Ok, so where should we start?" 

"Are there any villages here on Ahch-To?" Poe asked Rey who was the only one who had been on this planet before.

She nodded and pointed to the mountain in front of them. "Behind that mountain is a small village where Lanai caretakers live. But we should be cautious around them. They don't seem to like me much."

Finn and Poe both eyed Rey curiously with furrowed brows. 

"I may or may not have caused some troubles when I was training with Luke," she admitted sheepishly.

"Well," Poe sighed with his hands on his hips, "I'd say we start at the nearest village and ask the caretakers if they might know anything about whatever Rey is looking for. You know, if they decide to help us." 

"Sounds good," Finn agreed and nodded towards the mountain for Poe to take the lead before they headed towards the village to hopefully gather any information to what Rey was looking for. And why.

Rey was walking behind Finn and Poe as they treaded up the mountain to get to the Lanai village. She was deep in thought, thinking about the first time she had been on Ahch-To to get Master Skywalker to help the Resistance fight against the First Order. Little had she known that Master Skywalker had turned his back on the Force in fear of training another padawan only for them to fall like Ben had. 

Rey remembered having come to this planet to find hope, hope in Luke Skywalker, hope to defeat Kylo Ren and the First Order. Instead, she had found something else. She had found _hope_ in someone _else_. 

She had found hope in Ben. 

Rey would have never thought that she could feel something other than hate for him, for Kylo Ren, the Jedi-Killer, but she had been proven wrong when the Force connected them on several occasions, opening her eyes to his past, to who he was inside. And when he had listened to her when she had felt utterly alone, _feeling_ her pain and loneliness like no one had ever before, she felt hope. Hope that she wasn't alone in all this, hope that he could turn and fight alongside her. 

She had reached out to him that night, to touch him, and when he had brushed his fingers against her's, Rey had felt a sort of electric energy course through her body as she saw their future. A future so solid and clear, it seemed _so close_ that she could grasp it. 

In their future, Rey was standing close to a lake in a long, gray dress out of fabric she had never seen before. Her hair had been longer and she looked happy. And when Ben appeared by her side, placing a hand on the small of her back, she had turned to look up at him, her face shining brightly with a smile, before they shared a sweet, lingering kiss. 

Rey had longed for that future, she knew she had wanted her vision to become reality, which was why she had flown to him, to help him turn. But even after offering to help him, even after Ben had killed Snoke, he didn't turn. 

Not until he came to her aid on Exegol. 

Yet even though he had turned, Rey and Ben's future faded alongside him. Her hopes and dreams vanished with her dyad, but that wouldn't stop her from trying to bring him back. 

Rey wouldn't stop until she was sure she couldn't bring him home. 

Rey fell back slightly while she had been deep in thought and she wanted to catch up to her friends so they wouldn't worry about her again, yet before she could hurry to their sides everything around Rey fell silent and the only thing she could hear was the wind howling and the waves crashing while she felt a sudden pull to the core of the island. 

The Force was guiding her again, and this time, it was guiding her to the cave underneath the island. The cave Luke had explicitly told her not to enter when she had been here the first time, yet she still had. 

And she was going to enter it again.

Rey spun on her heel and made her way back down the slope, the Force guiding her every step. If the Force was calling out to her, then she knew she had to follow it. It was the will of the Force.

The village Rey meant could hardly be called a village. It was more a gathering of about a handful of huts behind the mountain where the Lanai lived. Yet that didn't necessarily mean it was a bad thing. The less villagers there were, the more likely it was that they could find out what Rey was looking for. 

Either that or the Lanai wouldn't tell them anything. 

As Finn turned to ask Rey what they should ask for, he noticed that she wasn't with them anymore.

"Poe?"

"Yeah buddy?" he asked looking over his shoulder to see what Finn wanted to say. "We _lost_ her?"

Finn nodded and glanced at the rocky path behind them, hoping that she might catch up.

" _Why_ do we keep on getting separated?" Poe sighed annoyed before turning back to the tiny village. "I guess it doesn't matter. We'll just ask these Lanais what's so special about this island and maybe we can find out what led Rey to come here," he said while heading down to a group of Lanai caretakers. 

"Hi," he greeted them, "I'm Poe and this is Finn. Our friend is looking for something on this island and we wanted to know if you could tell us something about this place cause it was so important for her to come here on her mission."

"Maybe you should add that she's a Jedi," Finn mumbled to Poe. 

"Oh yeah, sorry. Our friend's also a Jedi, so is there any secret Jedi-stuff on this island or something?" Poe added. 

The caretakers eyed one another and mumbled something before turning to Finn and Poe to give them their answers. Yet as they started to speak, both of them realized that they were speaking in a language none of them could understand. 

Poe raised his hand slightly and excused themselves before turning to Finn, his hands on his hips. "We can't understand them."

"Nope," Finn confirmed.

"Do you think Rey could understand them?"

"That's possible."

Poe exhaled sharply shutting his eyes. "Ok, what now?"

"I don't know," Finn replied shaking his head. "Maybe we could... oh wait!" he exclaimed, rummaging through the bag he had taken with him, pulling out a small, golden device. "This gadget has the software of a protocol droid and it can translate all sorts of languages. Maybe we can use this?" 

Poe put a hand on Finn's shoulder and said, "Good job, buddy. Where did you get it from?"

"Threepio and Rose gave it to me, they worked on it together," he told Poe. He furrowed his brows, staring at the device in Finn's hand and back at Finn. "If you were nicer to him, you'd probably get cool stuff too, you know?"

Poe shrugged carelessly and turned back to the Lanai, gesturing to Finn that he should turn the protocol device on. 

"I'm sorry, but could you please repeat what you told us before?" he asked nicely before they began to tell them what they had tried telling them before. 

The Lanai told Finn and Poe about the history of Ahch-To and that the island they were on was the birthplace of the Jedi-Order, that the first Jedi-Temple had been here and that until not too long ago, the sacred Jedi-Texts were stored on this island. Then they began to tell them about how Ahch-To was the counterpart of Exegol, the planet known for it's dark energy and its connection to the Sith. Finn briefly glanced at Poe at the mention of Exegol, hoping to catch a glimpse if he thought that maybe the reason why Rey needed to be here was because it was the opposite planet to Exegol, but Poe had shown no reaction, so Finn figured that that may not have been reason enough. 

Yet as the caretakers mentioned that the two planets were connected by a portal-like gateway Poe asked, "Where is the portal?" 

The Lanai shook their heads. They didn't know where the portal was, but they could tell them that the portal was an entrance to the world between worlds.

"What's that?" Finn immediately asked, never having heard of such thing. 

"It's a plane within the Force where all moments of time exist. It is said that one can retrieve lost ones through the world between worlds, as long as they haven't become one with the Force," one of the caretakers explained, her answer being translated through Finn's protocol gadget. 

Finn had a feeling deep inside him that Rey had been looking for the world between worlds and shut his eyes, trying something he had never done before. He tried to reach out to Rey with the Force. 

He knew he could sense her presence in the Force, he always could ever since they met on Jakku and when they were in the same system, but he had never tried to find her exact location with the Force. 

He breathed in and out, searching for a bright light, searching for her presence among all living things on this island, and as soon as he found her, he held on tight until he could make out where she was. 

"She's headed towards a pit. To a place underneath the island," he told Poe causing him to stare at him in confusion. "What is under this island?" Finn asked the Lanai urgently. 

They looked taken aback and began to stammer. "A dark place. A _very_ dark place," they told him. 

"We need to get her," Finn urged. " _That's_ where she's headed. And if she doesn't get out..."

Poe realized what Finn was going to say. They had just fought for peace in the galaxy, they didn't need to fight for it again. And if Rey fell to the dark side, then who knew what hell could break loose. 

They quickly thanked the Lanai caretakers and sprinted down the slope to get their friend before she got into trouble.

Finn and Poe tried their best not to fall and hurt themselves as they hurried to find Rey before she decided to jump into the pit the caretakers had warned them about. 

Poe was following Finn as he led the way to Rey, crying out her name in case she could hear them over the crashing waves. 

He was puzzled over the fact that Finn knew where Rey was headed to, or where she even was. He knew they were best friends, they _all_ were, but Finn finding out Rey's _exact_ location seemed strange to Poe. 

Strange, but not bad. It was very handy in these types of situations. 

But it proved that Finn's secret wasn't that he was in love with Rey, like Poe thought, but that there might be something more to him having been able to resist the First Order, why he suddenly woke up from being brainwashed for evil. 

_Does Finn have the Force?_ Poe asked himself and took a glance at his friend. 

He didn't know much about how the Force worked, except that some people had it and some didn't, and that one could lift rocks, float and use Jedi mind-tricks on stormtroopers to sneak around the enemy's ship, or even use it for dark purposes, like torture someone and search one's mind for information about a map leading to a Jedi-Master. 

But he had never seen Finn use the Force before, not like Rey or Kylo Ren, or even Leia, but that didn't mean he couldn't have it. 

Poe stumbled against his companion as he stopped in front of him, staring down at a familiar figure dressed in white standing in front of a dark hole close to the water. 

" _Rey_ ," he heard his friend whisper before continuing to rush down to her with Poe at his heels.

"Rey! Don't do it!" Finn yelled. "Don't go down there!" Yet even though Finn was calling for her, she didn't look back, she didn't even _flinch_ at the mention of her name or at the sight of the dark vines surrounding the void. 

She stared down the opening, taking a deep breath, no sign of fear visible in her posture. 

She was determined to go down there and not even Finn could stop her from doing so.

And before they could even reach the bottom of the slope, Rey jumped down the hole and was out of sight, vanishing into the darkness.

"No," Finn muttered and started running towards where Rey had been just moments before. " _No!_ " he screamed standing in front of the dark pit. 

Poe could only imagine what Finn was about to do and gripped his friend's upper arm , stopping him from following Rey. 

"Don't," he told him causing his friend to look over his shoulder. "We don't know what's down there."

"But she's _in_ _there_ , Poe, in the _dark_ pit," Finn stressed. "If it's really as _bad_ as the caretakers mentioned..." he stopped and inhaled sharply staring down the dark hole. "What if she turns?"

"Then we shouldn't go after her," Poe answered causing Finn to look at him confused. "We need to stay here and wait for her, and when she comes back and is suddenly on the dark side, we need to bring her back. And we can't do that if we jump in after her and fall as well."

Finn nodded understandingly, but Poe could tell that he was still trying to convince himself not to go after her.

"Hey," Poe began, rubbing his friend's back reassuringly, "she'll come back. She always does."

Finn stared down the pit again and mumbled, "I hope so," before following Poe to sit down on the nearest rock formation and wait.

For now, that was all they could do.

Wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for everyone for reading and commenting on this fic and for the kudos!   
> You are all too kind! :')


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "What kind of sacrifice?" Rey asked, her emotions churning inside her stomach.
> 
> She had a bad feeling about this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may have added a little twist :)

Rey kicked and pushed herself to get back to the surface once she jumped into the pool of water. She had never been a good swimmer due to the fact that she had spent all her life on Jakku, a desert planet where there was no beach or lake in sight, and even though she struggled now, she tried her best. Because that was what she was best at, surviving. 

As soon as she broke through the surface, Rey gasped for air as her lungs burned from holding her breath under water for longer than she was used to, and as she sighted the mirror she had faced long ago, she began fighting her way to it, kicking and splashing in the water until she grabbed hold to the rocky surface and pulled herself on top of it. 

Once she was out of the water, Rey slumped down on the hard wet floor, exhausted and breathing hard, her hair having escaped her buns from the impact of breaking the surface when she had jumped in the pool and her clothes were soaked through. She took a couple of more breaths to give her strength and pushed herself off of the floor to face the mirror. 

Rey stared at the foggy reflection for a while. It looked just like it had the last time she had come here and she took a step back and pondered anxiously, _What if this isn't the way to Ben? What if I just end up being reflected again?_

_What if I will never find him?_

Rey eyed the mirror in front of her as a nasty feeling spread through her veins, paralyzing her as it pumped through her body. She was afraid again. Afraid of finding out she was going to fail. Afraid of losing hope. 

Afraid of losing Ben forever. 

Yet before Rey could turn her back and leave the cave, she pushed away the fear gnawing at her heart and remembered the vision she had had. She remembered that the Force had led her here, that she needed to be here. 

And she wasn't going to turn her back on a possibility of getting Ben back, even if she was afraid she couldn't. 

Rey held her breath and shut her eyes, reaching out with her hand to touch the foggy surface of the mirror in front of her hoping that she could go further while her thoughts were focused on Ben.

And as soon as her fingers brushed against the icy glass, she sensed that she was in a different surrounding. Rey was now somewhere very cold but also very close to something _very_ strong with the Force. 

She opened her eyes and saw that she was engulfed by darkness. There was no floor, no walls, no _one._ Just her. All alone in a dark void.

Rey felt herself starting to panic, the venomous claws of fear scratching at her insides as there seemed to be no way out of this strange place.

"Hello?" she called out, praying that someone would answer her but instead she was met with a deafening silence. 

"Is anyone there?" she tried louder, but she wasn't even met with her own echo. 

Rey truly was alone, 

She began to think that she had made a mistake, that maybe the mirror was not going to grant her access to the world between worlds and therefore sent her here to decay. 

"No, no, no," Rey muttered to herself as she kneeled down and wrapped her arms around herself while blinking away tears. "This can't be it. This can't be where it ends, it _just can't!_ " she pleaded shaking her head. 

"I need to find him," she whispered desperately, clutching herself as if she were protecting the last bit of hope that remained in her body when she felt a strong pull in the Force behind her that caused her to glance over her shoulder to see a wooden door framed with gold runes in the middle of the darkness. 

Relief surged through Rey as she got up and wiped traitorous tears from her cheeks before she began to make her way to the only thing that existed in the darkness besides her. 

Yet as she stood in front of what could be her way out and was about to open the door, she heard a devious cackle surround her. A cackle that only brought back bad memories. Memories of her parents dying to protect her, memories of a war not having ended long ago. Memories of Ben dying in her arms. 

_Palpatine_.

Rey turned around and ignited her lightsaber, the yellow blade glowing brightly in her fierce face as she searched around for the Emperor. She wasn't going to hesitate to fight him once more. She wasn't going to hesitate to end his life again. 

Yet no matter how hard she tried to search for his grim and fragile figure in the darkness, she couldn't find him. She was still alone, so with a sigh, she decided to turn back to the door and open it, retracting her saber and latching it back to her hip, but instead of facing the door she was standing in front of a huge, broad creature with yellow eyes and horns. It's body was black, almost like a shadow and it's facial features were similar to an animal, yet it's body looked human. 

It was something Rey had never seen in her entire life. 

It was something she couldn't even imagine in her wildest dreams. Or nightmares. 

Rey felt herself holding onto her breath as it eyed her suspiciously, blocking the door she had tried to open just moments before.

" _Who are you and what is your purpose here?"_ it asked in a deep dark voice that filled the void around Rey, causing the hair on the back of her neck to stand.

She stared into it's eyes and sensed the power the creature possessed. Power that was similar to the Force, to her and Ben's powers, but they were also very different to theirs, as if the being in front of her was not just strong with the Force but something else, something she had never sensed before, though she could not figure out what it was. 

All she could do was sense that the creature was powerful and that she did not sense that she was in danger, _yet,_ so she answered confidently, "I'm Rey, Rey Skywalker, and I came here to look for the world between worlds."

The horned creature stared at Rey, his eyes glowing brightly as if it were staring deep into her soul. 

" _You lie_ ," it accused Rey. " _You are no Skywalker. Not by blood. You chose that name to hide your_ true _bloodline, a family name that spreads fear throughout the galaxy. But you can't hide that you are a_ Palpatine. _Not from_ me, _the protector of the Vergence Scatter."_

Rey swallowed hard, a bitter taste on her tongue as she tried to fight back tears from frustration. She didn't want to be reminded of her grandfather, she didn't want to be reminded that she was a part of his family. 

The creature began to circle around her like she was it's prey. " _Years ago, your grandfather Emperor Palpatine tried to find the world between worlds to become the most powerful being in the galaxy. He wanted to abuse the plane for power..."_

"I am _nothing_ like _him_. And I _never_ will be," Rey spat angrily. "I'm just trying to bring someone back. I'm here to bring my dyad back."

The being stopped in it's tracks and faced Rey again. " _You may say you are nothing like your grandfather, but I'll be the judge of that,"_ it began, " _To prevent a Jedi or Sith accessing this place for power, I'm going to need you to make a sacrifice only one who is strong with the Force can make."_

"What kind of sacrifice?" Rey asked, her emotions churning inside her stomach.

She had a bad feeling about this. 

Her question caused the creature to smile deviously and reveal it's sharp teeth. " _You may enter the plain under one condition. Once you found your dyad, and brought him back, you must give up your connection with the Force. Once and for all."_

Rey took a step back from the monstrous being in front of her. She didn't know if she could live without the Force, without training Jedi, without the power that existed in her ever since she had been born. Yet her connection with Ben had existed just as long, even though both of them had only realized it not long ago. 

She had always wanted to help people with the Force, she had wanted to do _good_ , to bring peace and balance to the galaxy and teach others with the Force how to maintain that balance. But ever since Ben faded away, Rey had been feeling as if a part of her was missing, as if someone had taken half of her soul. And she couldn't live for the rest of her life feeling like that. 

She couldn't live for the rest of her life feeling _torn apart._

Even if that meant she wouldn't have the Force anymore. She could still help, just not like she could before.

"I'll do it. I'll give up my connection to the Force once I bring Ben back," she told the being determined, yet she still felt sad. She was still going to give up a piece of her to retrieve her other half. 

The creature grinned, it's yellow eyes gleaming. " _As you wish_ ," it noted and opened the door, letting Rey pass through. 

As she was about to step foot through the gate, the monster stopped her and reminded, " _I'll be watching, Rey Palpatine_."

She flinched at that name, her insides burning from having been reminded of who her ancestor was. Who caused so much death and destruction to the galaxy. 

It was something she wanted to forget. 

And it was something she didn't want to be associated with. 

Rey passed by the creature and walked through the door, being engulfed by a bright light causing her to shut her eyes until the brightness faded. 

Her eyes fluttered open and she gasped at the sight in front of her. She was in a place where she could sense the Force flow all around, a place that was surrounded by darkness, but had many pathways that were traced with light which led to huge circles. 

She was finally in the world between worlds. 

Her heart began to hammer in her chest. She was a step closer to finding Ben, to bringing him home. 

She was hopeful. 

Yet even though she had hope, eyeing the different paths in front of her, she began to feel unsure which one to take. 

She could spend _years_ in here looking for Ben if she didn't take the right path. 

Rey shut her eyes again, remembering what she had read about the Vergence Scatter. 

_A plain that exists within the Force_. 

Inhaling, she decided to try to reach out to Ben again. If he was here and _she_ was here, there may be a possibility of her finding him. 

"Be with me," she began chanting, searching for his familiar presence in the Force. "Be with me."

"Be with me, _please_ ," she repeated and felt a sudden tingling feeling in her chest. Rey quickly opened her eyes and saw one of the paths in front of her beaming brightly. 

She smiled, feeling a little lightheaded, yet still determined. She knew what she had to do now. She knew which way to go. 

And so she started walking down the glowing path to find her dyad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to add a guardian because I thought it would be too easy if Rey were to just be able to walk into the world between worlds and bring Ben back. Also, I thought it'd be cool, haha.


	7. Chapter 7

Finn kept on pacing back and forth in the Falcon biting his nails and worrying about Rey's wellbeing while Poe slumped against one of the bunk beds watching his friend run around in circles. 

"Calm down, Finn," he told him, "try not to think about what dangers she could be facing. You're not making it any better."

"I can't _help it_ , Poe. I _hate_ that I can't do anything and have to wait around. If I were _there_ with her, I probably wouldn't worry as much because I could actually help," Finn explained running his hand through his hair.

"I know, buddy, but it's safer this way. For _all_ of us," Poe reminded and fell back against the hard mattress as both of them fell silent for a while. 

"What do you think she's looking for down there?" Finn finally asked, breaking the silence and catching Poe's attention again, "What's she looking for in that pit?"

Poe leaned on his elbows and met Finn's eyes. "I don't know. She never said anything to me."

He shook his head and worried his lower lip between his teeth as he pondered _why_ Rey wouldn't talk to them about whatever had been bothering her or why it was so urgent for her to come to Ahch-To. _Why_ was it "too dangerous" to tell them about what she was looking for?

Then Finn remembered what the Lanai caretakers had told them. He remembered that they had told them that Ahch-To and Exegol were connected through the world between worlds, and that one could bring back people to the present from the space in between. 

_Could that be the reason for Rey's recklessness from before?_

"Do you think she's trying to bring someone back?" asked Finn turning to Poe again. 

"What do you mean?" Poe moved to sit down on the edge of the bunk bed with furrowed brows. " _How_ is she going to bring someone _back_?"

"Don't you remember what the caretakers said? Ahch-To and Exegol are connected through the world between worlds and you can bring someone back from the world between worlds if they haven't become part of the Force yet. Don't you remember?" Finn stressed, reminding his friend of the conversation they hadn't had long ago.

Poe's confused expression seemed to change to enlightenment. "That could make sense considering that Exegol is a dark planet and the only dark place on this planet is that pit! Rey is trying to get someone back!" Poe exclaimed. "But _who_? Her _parents?_ "

"Could be," Finn began but stopped abruptly in shock. " _No_ ," he whispered feeling nauseous. 

"Wh-what happened, Finn? What's going on?" Poe questioned getting up to stand next to his friend and placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. 

"Something is wrong, Poe," he muttered to his friend, staring at the floor beneath them as his insides twisted nastily.

"How so?"

Finn glanced at him, his face a mask of earnestly while his eyes shone with fear as he whispered, "I can't feel Rey's presence anymore. Ever since she jumped into that pit, I could feel her presence very dimly, but now? It's _gone_." 

Suddenly losing Rey in the Force reminded him of Exegol, when he had been in the in the Millennium Falcon with Jannah and he felt as if someone had cut through a string to his heart. He had thought she had been dead then, but when she had appeared at base on Ajan Kloss he had been proven wrong as he had also felt her presence again. 

Why she had been gone in the Force and back again, Finn couldn't explain, but now that she was gone again he began to worry terribly. 

"What do mean 'presence', Finn?" Poe asked, "What's going on?"

Finn hesitated at first with telling him his secret, but he decided he better know. "Poe, I'm Force sensitive. I can _feel_ Rey through the Force because I _have_ it. I've always had it, but just recently I have been aware of what it was. I wanted to tell Rey about it first, you know, because she's a Jedi and she's experienced in the Force, but it never seemed to be the right _time._ "

Poe grinned at his friend and gave him a pat on his back. "So _that's_ what you've been trying to tell her! I always that you were going to confess your love to her." 

" _What_?" Finn blurted. " _No_! I mean, I love Rey, but as a _sister_. Why would you think that?"

"Well, you being so secretive about it. What else was I supposed to think?" Poe explained shrugging.

"I don't know? It doesn't always have to mean that someone is in _love_ with their best friend just because they have a secret they want to tell them," Finn told him shaking his head and both fell silent again, staring at the floor with Poe's arm wrapped around Finn's shoulders. 

"You know," Poe began, breaking the silence, "it's alright that you are Force sensitive. A lot of people are, so there's nothing to be afraid of."

Finn chuckled softly, glad that his friend was trying to cheer him up. "Thanks Poe."

But even though Poe was trying to make him feel better, he still couldn't stop worrying about Rey. 

If only he could sense her in the Force, he could at least be sure she was alive. But he couldn't, and that made him feel very anxious.

"What are we going to do now?" Finn asked Poe, "About Rey?"

Poe exhaled slowly and bit his lower lip. "I'd say we wait a couple more hours and when she isn't back until nightfall, we head down there ourselves to find her, ok?"

"Alright." Finn nodded feeling slightly relieved that he wasn't going to have to stay in the Falcon and wait all night, but that they might go after her if she didn't return.

But Finn hoped she would return.

He hoped she would return and be alright.

Rey had been following the glowing path for a while now, passing by huge dark circles framed with white while hearing voices echo around her, some of which she recognized from when she had reached out to the Jedi before her on Exegol, and some were of her and Ben, yet there were some voices she had never heard before. Voices that were full of agony yet also hope.

_You were the Chosen One!_ _It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them!_

_The greatest teacher, failure i_ _s._

_The truth is often what we make of it; you heard what you wanted to hear, believed what you wanted to believe._

_I will finish what you started._

_Anakin, you're breaking my heart!_

_I know what I have to do, but I don't know if I have the strength to do it._

_There_ _is good in him... I know there is..._

_You'll turn. I'll help you._

_Compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is essential to a Jedi's life._

_Ben!_

_You turned her against me!_

_Ben._

_Don't be afraid. Mommy and daddy will never leave you._

_Come back!_

Rey stopped abruptly in her tracks. She knew that voice _all_ too well and the memory still burned when she remembered her parents. 

All those years on Jakku, she had believed that her parents would come back one day, she even wore a similar outfit from when they had left her just in case they wouldn't be able to recognize her, yet a couple of months ago Rey found out that they would never return. They would never come back to her. 

Because they died protecting her.

They died and Rey would never be able to tell them how much she had missed them. How long she had _waited_ for them.

Rey trembled and hot tears streamed down her face as she hugged herself. 

"Rey, be brave," she sniffled to herself what her mother had told her before selling her to Unkar Plutt to comfort herself. "Be brave."

" _Rey, be brave_ ," she suddenly heard and quickly raised her gaze to a circle in front of her. 

"Mother?" Rey asked and got closer to the vision and it began to become clear inside the dark circle.

And there she was. Her mother. 

She had tears in her eyes as she embraced Rey's tiny body. She knew she wasn't going to see her daughter again, she knew she was going to have to leave her alone, but she needed her to be safe. 

Rey held a hand in front of her mouth as she watched her mother cry and her father kneeled down next to them, his eyes wet with tears. It was a cruel scene to watch, and it was a cruel memory to Rey. It was her last memory of them and she was never going to have anything other than that moment with them. 

She wished she could touch them one more time, embrace them and thank them for protecting her and tell them how much she missed them. She wanted it _so_ much, she thought of reaching through the vision in front of her and pulling them to her. 

And they were _so close_ Rey thought it might actually work.

She slowly reached out her hand and got closer to the circle, to her _parents_. All those years of loneliness and waiting fueling her every movement as she made her way to her family. 

Rey was just about to break the surface and grab her mother and father, her heart hammering wildly inside her chest when she felt the Force tingling behind her causing her to abruptly look over her shoulder. 

Rey's arm dropped when she stared at the vision behind her. 

" _Ben_ ," she gasped, turning around completely, her mouth agape with a tear trickling down her face. 

She found him. She _finally_ found him after _months_ of hopelessly searching for him. 

Rey stepped closer to Ben who was floating in the darkness, trapped behind the circle from getting out and coming back to her. 

His eyes were shut and his mouth slightly opened as if he were sleeping, yet even though he had been gone so long, he hadn't changed a bit. 

He still looked like he had the last time she saw him on Exegol, when he had come to her aid with only a blaster to protect him from any danger. He had been _crazy_ to come to Exegol with a _blaster_. He could've gotten himself killed before he could've reached out to Rey, before he could have come to her side. But he hadn't cared that he had put himself in grave danger because he had been so determined to be with her, to keep her _safe_. 

It reminded her a lot of herself when she had flown herself to the Supremacy when she had thought Ben would turn. She had known she could've put herself in danger yet she still came. For Ben. 

Just like she had now.

Rey stared at his bruised face, his bruised lips and remembered what it felt like to kiss him, to be held by him, to be loved by him. 

It was everything she had ever wanted since they touched hands, since she was sure of her feelings for Ben. 

Because he made her feel whole. 

Rey knew what she had to do, but before she could she fully turn her attention to Ben, she faced her parents again. 

She glanced at them once more, memorizing their faces, memorizing how close she was to them just now and smiled sadly. 

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "But there's someone else I need to bring back home." She wiped her fresh tears away and frowned. "I'll remember you, always," she added sobbing and watched the vision in front of her vanish before she turned around again to do what she came here for, to bring back someone who should've never left.

To bring back her dyad, Ben Solo.


	8. Chapter 8

_You can do this, Rey_ , she told herself as she stood in front of Ben's floating figure, eyeing her surroundings for anything that could help her further, something that could tell her how to get him out of the circle that was keeping him from her because it didn't seem like he could get out himself.

But she was alone. Utterly alone. Just like on Jakku.

And she had to figure this out in her own.

Just like on Jakku. 

Yet, even though she had been alone almost all her life, there was still something that had always been there. 

_The Force._

The Force had always helped her survive. It had helped her find the best scraps to trade in for portions even when she hadn't known she was strong with the Force, so maybe it could help her now. 

It _had_ helped her get here in the first place. 

Rey reached out her hand and whispered, " _Please_ ," anxiously praying the Force could show her a clear sign on how to free Ben, just like it had with her visions or when it had showed her the pathway she should take to get here. 

Yet nothing happened. No glowing, no vision, nothing.

Instead, when Rey glanced from her outstretched hand to Ben again, she noticed a change in him and fear began to nestle itself in her chest, pumping through her body like venom.

He was starting to vanish again. She was starting to lose him again, and there was no way to know how to stop him from leaving this time. 

But Rey couldn't bear to lose him once more. There was no way she could let that happen. She had come all this way to get him back and she did not plan on leaving without him. 

And Rey was _so close_ to him, _so close_ to getting him back, she could almost _feel_ him. 

Desperation and loneliness overwhelmed Rey as she felt like her knees were about to give in while she stared longingly at Ben with desperate tears blurring her vision. 

"This can't be how it ends," Rey whispered as all hope seemed to abandon her. 

She had come so far to find him, to bring him _home_ and she was _so close_ to finishing what she had started. 

_So close_. 

Rey let herself glance over her shoulder to where her parents had been moments before, the memory of simply reaching through the circle to pull her parents to her still buzzing in her mind. They had also been so close to her she could almost feel them, almost feel the Jakku heat through the vision. 

It had seemed so simple.

Rey quickly turned her gaze back to Ben's slowly dissolving figure as if she were asking for his help. But she knew he wasn't going to answer. She knew he couldn't help her. 

But she may be able to help him.

The idea was risky, but Rey had nowhere else to turn to look for guidance, so she let the fear of losing Ben forever and being so close to him take over her body as she reached out to touch him, to break the surface and _grab him_ to pull him to safety. She didn't think it was possible, that it could be that easy, yet when her hand wrapped around his wrist, she could feel his presence in the Force again, she could feel _him_ again. 

She could feel _hope_ again. 

Rey's heart began to pound against her rib cage as she wrapped her second hand around his lower arm and pulled him out of the circle with all her strength, watching his body become less transparent again when he broke through the surface with her help and as soon as she pulled him out, she carefully laid him down, cradling his upper body in her arms as she stared at him and waited for him to wake up.

And Rey waited for a while as she searched his face with yearning that at any moment he would open his eyes and look up at her, but he didn't wake up. 

He was still comatose. 

Rey began to rock him back and forth, pleading, "Please, _please_ wake up, Ben," and tears began to trickle down her cheeks while silent sobs escaped her lips as she thought of the possibility that she might have messed up, that he might not come back.

That she wasn't able to save him after all.

"Ben, be with me... _please,_ " Rey begged and held him closer. She didn't want to let him go, she wasn't ready to live her life without him. 

She couldn't. 

Rey began to sob, her heart aching in agony as she felt like she had gone _so far_ only to lose _everything_ again when she heard her name being uttered in a raspy, deep voice. A voice that was forever branded in her mind. "Rey?" 

She felt a familiar presence shine brightly in the Force again, a presence that matched her own perfectly, completing it like a puzzle and she immediately glanced at Ben to see him looking up at her in disbelief, his brown eyes glistening softly as they wandered around her face just like he had when he had brought her back to life on Exegol. 

" _Ben?_ "

He hadn't known how long he had been gone, but he knew it had been _too long_. 

He knew because he had seen her on Tatooine, training Jedi, adjusting to her new life. It had seemed like he had been forced to watch her from afar since they had been torn apart from each other on Exegol while she tried to find him _every day_. 

And there was nothing he could have done to help her guide her to him.

Ben knew he hadn't been dead, he could still feel his heart beat, he could still feel it _yearn_ for Rey, but no matter how hard he had tried, Ben couldn't reach out to her, couldn't _feel_ her, let alone open his eyes or move. 

He had been stuck somewhere far from her reach and had to watch her try to find him day after day. 

And it had been torture for him not being able to help her, to send her some kind of sign through the Force to tell her where he was, that he was alive.

That he wanted to be with her.

Yet when Rey had set foot on Ahch-To with her friends, Ben had lost sight of her and was surrounded by darkness for the first time since they had parted and he had begun to believe that he was going to be stuck lingering in a void forever.

Until now. 

The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was her frail figure holding on to him, her body shuddering with silent sobs as she pleaded for him to wake up. 

He thought he was imagining lying in Rey's arms, that his mind was showing him what he wanted to see to keep him from fearing the darkness surrounding him. 

But this was different from when he had seen her before. This time, he could _feel_ her, her presence, the light inside her, her _soul_. He could feel her _touch_ as she held him in her arms. 

"Rey?" Ben uttered in disbelief staring up at her, his eyes wandering from her wet, brown hair falling to her shoulders to the tears running down her face to her trembling lower lip before she opened her eyes and he could see the relief in her glistening hazel eyes. 

" _Ben?_ _"_ Rey whispered and a small smile spread across her face while a tear trickled down her cheek and his heart twisted longingly. If this was just a fragment of his imagination, it sure was cruel.

All Ben wanted to do was touch her, to brush his fingers against her cheek and feel the warmth of her skin.

He wanted to hold her, even if it meant she might vanish and leave him alone in the darkness again.

Ben slowly reached out with his right hand to touch her tear-stained cheek, his chest aching as he imagined her fading away under his touch. But to his surprise, she didn't disappear at all. 

Ben's breath hitched as his fingers brushed against her soft skin, showing him that she was here, that he was in her arms. That she came here to get him. 

He grinned softly and wiped a silent tear from her cheek. "You came," he uttered caressing her face, unable to hide his own whirlwind of happiness and relief as he felt his insides shake with the need to suppress unshed tears. 

Rey wrapped her hand around the one Ben held against her cheek and squeezed it tightly. "So have you," she whispered. 

She helped him sit upright and he flinched, his ribs and leg still hurting from having been flung into a pit by Palpatine when they had been on Exegol. 

It was strange that after what seemed like a long time to him, his wounds still have not healed. Yet again, this place was strange. 

Wherever they were, it was nothing Ben had ever seen or _heard_ of. 

They were surrounded by darkness, yet there were pathways leading to huge circles framed by a white light, and despite the darkness, this place had a strong presence.

A _very_ strong presence. 

"Where are we?" Ben asked Rey, still eyeing their surroundings in awe. 

"This is the world between worlds," she began to explain, her hand on his back and the other still in his hand. "It's a place that exists in the Force between time and space. When you... when you..." she struggled with what she wanted to say and Ben turned to face her again and nodded softly, showing her that he knew what she meant causing Rey to sigh relieved. It was only now that Ben realized how close they were to one another. They were so close he could feel her warm breath sting against his lips and could almost feel her heart beat in sync with his. 

He swallowed hard and looked into her glistening eyes as she continued to explain, her voice softer and quieter than before, "When you vanished I expected you to have become one with the Force because I could no longer feel your presence around me. It was like someone had torn half of my soul from my body and left me incomplete. So I tried reaching out to you with the Force, but with no success and I nearly lost hope. It wasn't until your mother told me about this place that I believed you could be here, that our bond wouldn't let you die as long as I was alive. And I was right," she concluded with a subtle grin that still reached her eyes, letting them shine with pure happiness. 

"I felt it too," Ben muttered squeezing her hand, "that emptiness inside my soul. I felt it. But I also saw you, _watched_ you reaching out to me, but I couldn't do anything to help. I wanted to come back, Rey. I wanted to come back to _you_ _."_

Before Ben could say more about how much he had wanted to be with her, Rey pulled him into an embrace, her fingers nearly digging into his shoulder blades as if she were clutching for her dear life. 

She had never held Ben like this and at first it had taken him aback, but it didn't take him long to let himself give into her warm embrace and wrap his arms around her waist as he pulled her closer to him, nearly closing every open space that existed between them just to have her as close as possible to him. 

"I missed you _so so_ much, Ben," Rey said against his shoulder before slowly parting from their embrace, her arms still around his shoulders. 

"I missed you too," mumbled Ben, his eyes tracing the shape of her lips as he was utterly mesmerized by her whole being and the fact that she had yearned for him just as he had for her. 

When Ben was able to tear his gaze away from her lips, he noticed her staring at him with an expression he remembered from when they had been on the elevator in the Supremacy, when she had told him that she would help him turn, and on Exegol shortly before she had kissed him. 

He hesitated, wanting their lips to meet again, yet Ben feared that she might not want what he wanted, that maybe their kiss on Exegol was a one-time-thing. 

Yet before he could push away the idea completely, Rey uttered words he had said to her a long time ago, "Don't be afraid," causing Ben to scoff and shake his head lightly with a small smile upon his lips before slowly leaning into her, his eyes fluttering shut shortly before their lips met so he could take her beauty in to the fullest.

The kiss they shared was soft and tender with their emotions flowing through each other for both of them to feel what their other half felt. 

Sadness, relief and happiness were swirling through them as they held one another _so_ close while their lips and souls were intertwined.

Ben's hands found their way to Rey's hair and his fingers were tangled up in her moist brown hair like a child hiding in a safe haven as her arms were wrapped around his waist, clinging on to him while their kiss lasted. 

Once their lips parted, Ben's hands slowly fell from her hair to her shoulders and then to her wrists until he held her hands in his, their bond still running through them, more present than ever before. 

They both chuckled softly as their foreheads rested against one another's while they seized the moment of finally finding each other for a little longer before Rey whispered, "We should get going."

Ben nodded brushing strands of hair out of Rey's face before she got up and held her hands out for him to take.

Yet before she could help him up, they heard a deep, menacing voice surround them and a huge dark, animal-like creature with intense yellow eyes and massive horns appear in front of them, staring down at Rey, " _I see you found what you were looking for. Your dyad in the Force, your_ soulmate."

Ben felt a wave of panic surge through him as he glanced at the creature in front of them and at Rey, knowing that there wasn't much he could do. He couldn't fight off the monster with his injuries. He could hardly help Rey in his state.

And what was worse was that Ben could feel a sense of devastation in her Force presence. 

_Don't worry, Ben. Everything is alright_ , he heard her speak inside his mind and stared at her astonished. How could she tell him that everything was alright when he could clearly _feel_ it wasn't? 

She straightened her back and raised her head to look back at the horned creature with a dignified stance, but even though Ben couldn't see her face he could tell that she was fighting off tears. 

"Rey, what's going on?" he asked worried, his heart pounding inside of his chest. 

" _It is time, Rey Palpatine_ _,"_ the creature spoke.

"I know," she uttered with her voice fainting and the monster raised one of it's clawed hands, pointing it at her chest.

Ben tried to push himself off the ground to rush to Rey's side and protect her from danger, but failed and fell back on his rear end with a grunt. "Rey? What's happening?" he urged afraid. 

She glanced over her shoulder to him, her fair hazel eyes glazed with sadness. "It's ok, Ben. You're back and that's all that matters," she whispered as a single tear ran down her cheek before she turned back to face the creature again.

"Rey! Whatever you are doing, please _stop_!" pleaded Ben, but she didn't listen, so he thought of taking matters in his own hands. He raised his hand, channeling the Force to freeze the horned figure before it could harm Rey, but it realized what Ben had planned and froze him instead, forcing him to watch Rey without being able to do anything.

Again. 

Ben tried to fight it's grasp as his eyes were fixed on his other half before he realized what was happening as the creature proceeded what he had tried to do before with a raised claw. 

It was taking away Rey's Force abilities. 

Ben wanted to scream, to loosen the hold the creature had on him as he watched her Force energy slip from her body into it's fingers, cutting their bond off again and leaving him with a hollow feeling in his own presence. 

As soon as the deed was done, Rey fell to her knees and covered her face and Ben felt the pressure holding him still vanish, making it able for him to move again. 

But he couldn't feel her presence anymore. Not in the Force. 

Ben crawled to Rey, biting his teeth together from the pain caused by his wounds until he was able to reach her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She turned to face him, revealing her tear-stained eyes to him and took his hand into her own while painting a smile on her face.

"Why did you do it?" Ben asked her softly, caressing her hand. 

She sniffled and squeezed his hand. "Because having to live one more day without you is _far worse_ than living without the Force. When you aren't in my life, I don't feel complete, but I do now, even without the Force. The Force was awakened in me only a year ago, but our bond? That has always existed, and it always will."

Ben pulled her into his arms and held her tight. "I'm sorry you had to do this, Rey."

"Don't be," she told him brushing hair out of his face. "I would do it again if I had to."

Rey helped Ben get up alongside her and he wrapped one arm around her shoulders while softly leaning against her for support as they stared at the creature who had taken Rey's Force abilities away. 

"We are ready to go," she told it determined, masking her loss. 

It nodded and with a swift movement of it's hand, a portal appeared behind it and Ben could see his father's ship through it. 

He inhaled sharply, remembering Han and the many times Ben had hidden on the Falcon from his duties and how he had wished he could become a pilot like his father, how he had secretly wished he would fly the Millennium Falcon one day.

Rey helped Ben make their way to the portal but as they passed the creature, she turned to look over her shoulder and said, "Thank you. For letting me bring him back," before they walked through the portal together.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello readers,   
> it took me a while to update due to what is happening in the States, and to be honest it has been taking a toll on my mental health. No person should be more likely to die because of their skin color. No one.   
> No one should be discriminated because of how they look, their beliefs or their sexual orientation. We are all humans, we are all flesh and bones, and we all have dreams.   
> I know that I am privileged and I have never experienced any kind of discrimination because of my skin color (I have because I am a woman but this is not what I am focusing on), but being privileged does not mean that I do not mourn the losses of all of these lives lost due to this injustice and it doesn't mean that I am not enraged.   
> I am very enraged, which is why I am trying to do my best to help.   
> If you want to help, please spread the word, sign petitions, donate if you can and most importantly: don't stay silent when this topic is not trending anymore. Racial injustice is real and we can only fight it by being actively anti-racist and spreading the word.  
> Let's fight this together. 
> 
> Now I know that this topic was a little heavy, so I hope that this update can be a little uplifting. :)

Finn eyed the suns slowly setting on Ahch-To, bathing the island in orange and pink as he gnawed on the inside of his cheek. It was almost nightfall, which meant if Rey didn't return, he and Poe would go after her. 

In Finn's opinion, they should've gone after Rey a lot earlier, not only because of the sickening feeling of worry and fear in his chest but because Rey would've done so, too. Yet Poe had insisted on staying behind, not only in fear of losing Finn to the dark side, but because he believed Rey would come back. 

And it wasn't like Finn did not have faith in his friend. He always believed in Rey and he never doubted her strength and smarts, but that still hadn't stopped him from his initial reaction to go after her just to make sure she would be alright, to help her, and so she wouldn't have to be alone in all this. 

But she was alone in the hollow darkness while Finn was forced to watch the suns set agonizingly slow until he could finally come to her aid. Until he _and_ Poe could go find her. 

Finn's eyes wandered over to glance at Poe to see how his friend was holding up and saw him leaning against the pilot's chair with his feet propped up on the Falcon's controls. Finn silently chuckled to himself, imagining Rey's reaction. He _knew_ that she would've been furious at Poe for sitting in her chair like that, so careless and relaxed, unafraid that he might damage the ship _again._

Finn let the thought humor him a while longer before he sighed 

He envied Poe and how calm he was, how he could stare into the distance without fearing the worst and Finn wished he could just lay back and wait for their time to head out too, but he couldn't calm his nerves when it came to his friends and their safety.

He just cared too much. 

Finn pushed himself out of the co-pilots chair with a heavy-hearted sigh and headed to the back of the ship to search for weapons or other means for protection. Finn was sure he had seen a blaster in the compartment where Rey had kept the oversized clothes hidden from them and made his way to retrieve it. 

As he was about to open the compartment, Finn stopped and remembered the hurt expression on Rey's face as she snatched the huge, dark sweater from his hands and brought them back to where he had found them, and frowned. He had just wanted to know who the clothes had belonged to and if his friend Poe had been hurt. He hadn't known that the sweater had a deeper meaning to Rey and that she had purposely hidden it from them.

Finn ran a hand through his hair and huffed sadly as his fingers rested against the compartment. He wished Rey would tell him who the clothes had belonged to and why she was keeping it a secret, especially why she was keeping it a secret from _them_ , her friends, her _family_ , the people who supported her no matter what. 

But even though he longed for her to trust them with her secret, he had to respect her decision. And anyways, it wasn't like he didn't have a secret or two himself. 

Finn quickly pushed away any doubt of Rey not trusting him from his mind and opened the drawer to reveal the blaster laying on top of the dark clothing again and grabbed the weapon to latch it onto his belt, his eyes unconsciously falling back to the sweater. 

Finn couldn't point out why the item in front of him seemed so familiar, but there was a _feeling_ deep inside of him that told him he knew who these clothes had belonged to. He _knew,_ he just needed to find out.

And Finn knew just how. 

Finn straightened his back and took a deep breath, focusing on the tingling feeling that had been awake inside of him for some time now to try and help him find out who the owner of the dark and damaged clothes was. But before Finn could place his hand on the fabric, the sweater, pants and shoes started to vanish into thin air, leaving nothing behind that could give a hint that someone's belongings had been lying in front of him. 

"What?" Finn asked with furrowed brows, confusion painting his thoughts as he was left staring into the empty drawer. Yet as he was about to further ponder what had happened and why, Poe interrupted his thoughts with good news. 

"She's back! Finn, Rey's _back_!" he called from the cockpit and Finn could hear Poe scrambling to get up.

Grabbing his bag from one of the bunks and quickly forgetting what had just happened, Finn sprinted to his friend's side to stare out of the Millennium Falcon. His heart was hammering excitedly in his chest as he saw Rey make her way to the ship and he couldn't help but let out a huge sigh of relief at the sight of her while a dark figure, who Finn chose to only briefly acknowledge before focusing his gaze on his best friend again, was leaning against her for support. 

But the happiness of seeing Rey alive and well was soon clouded with something else. 

Something bitter and scary.

Fear and concern took over Finn's calm as he realized that he couldn't feel her presence in the Force anymore. And the lack of her light chilled Finn to the bones. 

She was _clearly_ in front of them, _clearly alive,_ but he couldn't feel her anymore, just like he couldn't soon after she jumped into the pit. 

_Something happened to her down there. Something bad_ , Finn thought, worrying his lower lip between his teeth.

"Who's that next to her?" Poe asked squinting to get a better look at the person next to Rey while unconsciously pulling Finn out of his thoughts again. 

He then focused on the man next to his best friend and immediately felt his presence in the Force, a presence he had felt and feared so many times before. 

"It can't be," he mumbled taking out the binoculars from his bag and turning back to look at Rey and the person leaning against her, the binoculars giving him the proof he needed to know that he was right. "It's _Ren_."

" _Kylo_ Ren? Are you _sure_?" Poe questioned in disbelief. 

Finn handed him his binoculars to see for himself and as soon as he laid eyes on the former Supreme Leader clinging on to their friend he asked, "Why would she bring _him_ back? Is she _crazy_?" 

"I don't know, Poe, but we might as well get to her. Just in case," Finn told him and unlatched the blaster on his hip handing it to Poe as he pulled out his own out of his bag.

"Yeah, who knows what kind of mind trick he used on her," Poe added as they made their way out of the Falcon. 

_Or worse_ , Finn thought about her lack of presence in the Force. 

Both of them quickly walked down the ramp to meet Rey and Kylo Ren with grim and suspicious faces and Finn's nerves on edge as he stood in front of the two. 

Yet there was something different about him, about _both_ of them. 

"Uh, so, what is _he_ doing _here_?" Poe asked pointing the blaster Finn had just given him at Ren, the latter briefly glancing at the weapon in Poe's hand with a glint in his eyes before staring at both of them. 

Rey glanced at her friends as she bit down on a small smile, and Finn noticed just _how_ different she seemed and how she seemed more like herself again even though there was a faint glimmer of sadness in her eyes. Finn then took a brief glance at Kylo, eyeing his bruised, scarless face. Even though the man in front of him had been the head of the First Order, a man who had once tortured Poe, cut Finn's back open and who had been _very_ strong with the dark side of the Force, Finn couldn't sense that darkness in him anymore. It was gone, like a raging fire that had died out. But there was something inside him instead, something that had emerged from the ashes. 

_Light._

Finn glanced disbelieved at Kylo Ren, trying to mask that he had felt the change in the man before him as his eyes fell to the dark and damaged clothes he was wearing. And that was when Finn realized whose clothes Rey had been hiding from them. 

They had been _his_. 

Rey had brought Kylo Ren back from the world between worlds, she had gone _all this way_ to bring _him_ back. But why she did it, Finn couldn't quite figure out after all Kylo Ren had done. But even though he didn't understand, he knew that Rey must've had her reasons and Finn had faith in her. 

He relaxed the his muscles and placed a hand on the one Poe had lingering on the blaster to prevent him from attacking Kylo, causing Poe to stare at Finn in disbelief but let his hand fall back to his side as Rey exhaled relieved. 

"It's a long story and I'll explain it later once we get home," she told them, her eyes pleading for them to accept her decision for now. 

Poe eyed Kylo skeptically and took a quick glance at Finn causing him to shrug before he turned back to face Rey and their enemy. "Fine, let's go. Let's go home," he gave in annoyed and turned on his heel with Finn following suit. 

On their way back up the ramp, Finn briefly glanced at Rey and Kylo and saw their fingers intertwine over her shoulder as she gave him support to walk. 

He still couldn't quite understand why Rey had brought him back even though he seemed less menacing, both in the Force and by the way he held himself, but as he studied the look on her face and the way their hands fit perfectly into one another's, Finn knew that it had been Rey's plan all along to bring him back and that she hadn't told them of her mission because she had been afraid they wouldn't understand.

Finn still may not understand, but he did accept her decision. 

After all, he trusted her.

Rey, Ben, Poe and Finn were about halfway up the ramp leading to the Falcon when Rey heared her name being called out behind her, causing her to stop and stare over her shoulders to see a woman with white hair and white clothing standing not too far away from them. The woman seemed to be glowing brightly like a light, and as Rey stared at her longer, the woman waved at her. 

Rey noticed Ben staring over his shoulder as well and asked, "What's wrong?" 

"It's nothing," she told Ben while staring at the mysterious woman calling out to her. She wondered if Ben could see her as well, but by the slightly confused and worried look on his face, she figured he couldn't. 

Rey then tried to turn her attention back to getting back home, but the thought of wanting to know what the person calling her had wanted and that she was the only one who could see her, kept on swimming to the surface of her mind until she came to the conclusion that if she was the only one to see and hear her, then she might as well go to her. 

"I'll be right back," she mumbled to Ben and stared at the backs of her friends, calling them, "Poe? Finn? Could you two help him up the ramp? There's something I need to do before we can leave."

She saw Poe glancing at Finn as if they were silently discussing who should help Ben, before Poe rolled his eyes. "Fine," he decided and took over Rey's spot before she thanked him and turned around to head to the woman calling her. 

"Come on, Ren, let's get you inside. But let me tell you, don't even think of stepping out of line, you understand?" Rey heard Poe warn. 

"It's Ben," he simply replied.

"What?" Poe asked confused. 

"It's Ben. Ben Solo," he repeated causing Rey to smile before she left them for the mysterious woman behind her. 

The closer she got to the woman the more Rey noticed that there was something different about her. She noticed that this was no ordinary woman, no ordinary _person,_ and that there was something very powerful about her.

" _Rey_ ," she spoke as soon as she reached her, her voice soft and nurturing.

"H-how do you know my name?" Rey stuttered confused. She had never seen this person in her entire life and she couldn't figure out how this person could know who she was, but that still didn't stop her from coming to her as soon as she called for Rey. Rey blamed her curiosity for that.

The woman chuckled and glanced into Rey's eyes revealing the specks of yellow in her nearly black irises. " _We've met before_ ," the woman told Rey with a smile.

"We have?" she asked with furrowed brows causing the woman to laugh again.

" _Yes, we have. In fact, it wasn't all too long ago_ ," she replied not answering Rey's question precisely. Yet before Rey could ask her any further questions, the person said, " _I came to you because you forgot something._ " 

Rey eyed the woman in front of her suspiciously as she tried to remember what she could have possibly lost while she was on the island, in the cave, in the world between worlds, but she couldn't figure out what she could possibly mean. 

"What..." she began, but before Rey could finish that thought the woman in front of her held out both of her hands for Rey to take. 

As Rey carefully placed her hands in the other woman's palms she immediately felt a familiar feeling surge through her, a feeling that had always existed within her finding its way back home in her body. 

The Force.

Rey gasped as she began to sense the Force around and inside of her again, feeling the presence of her loved ones and of the island before the woman let go of her hands. 

" _You have proven that you are nothing like your grandfather_ ," she spoke and it was then that Rey realized who the person in front of her was and why she had known who Rey was. 

It was the guardian of the world between worlds. 

" _You are your own person and even though you are the heiress of the Sith, you won't let that stand in the way of being who you are because you have a good heart, Rey Skywalker._ "

Rey glanced at her hands, feeling the power run through her veins again and back at the guardian, tears of joy distorting her view. 

"Thank you," she uttered while escaped tears trickled down her face. 

The guardian smiled sweetly and wiped Rey's tears away before taking her hands in her own once more. " _May the Force be with you, always_ ," she said and gestured to Rey that she should head back to her friends. 

Rey nodded with a soft smile upon her lips and let go of the guardian to make her way back to the Falcon. As she started heading back, Rey took another glance over her shoulder and saw that she was gone again, leaving no trace behind of her existence besides Rey's memory.

"May the Force be with you," Rey repeated before she turned back to continue to head back to her friends.

Finn couldn't keep his eyes off of "Ben" ever since Poe helped him onto the Falcon and onto the seating area next to the dejarik board. Finn may trust Rey, but he still couldn't quite trust _him_. Not yet at least. There were still so many unanswered questions in his mind, the most prominent one being why Rey brought him back and why she trusted him. 

Rey had hardly spoken about Kylo Ren, or _Ben Solo_ , ever since they had been friends, the only time he could remember was when she had told him of her vision of the both of them sitting on the Sith throne, but other than that, Finn couldn't recall her ever talking about him, or that she could possibly have feelings for him, or what had happened to him in the first place. Finn and Poe had figured he had died during the war, and they had speculated how that could've happened, but after having seen the former Supreme Leader next to their friend, Finn started to believe there was more to the story, that he did not just fall in the war. Something else happened. 

Finn eyed Kylo curiously again, leaning against the cockpit's doorframe, trying to read his mind but with no success as Finn had no such training or whatsoever to invade people's minds, so he watched him as he flinched from the pain in his leg as he tried to move in his position. 

Finn fought back a chuckle watching his former boss, the big bad Kylo Ren, pulling himself together to not scream out in pain. A couple of years ago, he would've probably thrown a fit, destroying everything that stood in his way, but now Finn noticed how calm he was in comparison to who he was back then. 

It was a strange, yet somehow an amusing sight to witness. 

But Finn's amusement suddenly turned to bewilderment as he felt her presence surround him again and his eyes immediately snapped to look at Kylo, knowing that he must've felt her too and he watched as his face grow soft and his eyes widen before his eyes locked with Finn's. Kylo's brows furrowed slightly as he stared at him before Rey stepped inside the Millennium Falcon drawing his gaze immediately to her.

Finn mimicked Kylo Ren's stare as he saw Rey and noticed the smile on her face as she made her way to him. Everything seemed like it was back to normal again. And now she _definitely_ seemed more like herself again. 

" _How_?" Ben asked her causing her grin to reach her eyes.

"The guardian came back and told me that I am nothing like my grandfather," she answered with a huge smile on her face and he nodded as if he understood what she meant before Rey put a hand on his thigh and straightened her face while taking a deep breath. 

Finn watched them from afar as Kylo gasped shortly after her touch and noticed how his bruises began to fade away, realizing that Rey was healing his wounds like she had with the vexis on Pasaana. 

As soon as she was finished healing him, Finn witnessed something he never thought he would never see. 

Kylo Ren _smiled_.

At first, Finn found it strange how different and less menacing he looked but he also started to notice something else. He noticed how much he looked like his parents, Han and Leia. 

Both of his parents had believed he had good in him, even when no one else had, and Finn had been one of the many people who doubted there could be any good left in Kylo Ren, but now after seeing him with Rey, after seeing a genuine smile upon his face, he understood why they had strongly believed in their son, why Rey probably had too. 

Kylo, no, _Ben_ started to reach for Rey's cheek just before Finn turned around to face the cockpit, not wanting to see his best friend kiss their former enemy, yet he could still feel Rey's happiness radiate through the Force and he couldn't help but smile himself. 

"I think they're in love," Finn mentioned to Poe who hadn't been paying attention to anything that had happened since they had gotten Ben inside. 

His friend looked over his shoulder to Rey and Ben and scrunched up his face in disgust. "But _how_? Didn't he do a lot of terrible things? Didn't he hurt _both_ of us?" Poe asked, his eyes still on the two in the back. 

"He did, but I guess there are things in this galaxy that we won't be able to understand, this being one of them," Finn answered following Poe's glance to Ben and Rey as they watched both of them smile as he held her close.

"He doesn't seem so..." Poe began but didn't finish his sentence.

"He seems like he's changed," Finn finished for him and patted Poe's shoulder reassuringly before seating himself on the co-pilot's chair. "Hey, I'm sure Rey will explain everything once we get back home."

"Yeah, I hope so," Poe sighed before turning on some switches to prepare to fly back to Tatooine. 

Finn glanced over his shoulder once more to look at his best friend, seeing her giggle in the arms of the man he thought was pure evil, the man he had hated the most in the entire galaxy, but as he sensed his presence once again, it still didn't seem dark anymore. 

The man sitting there no longer was Kylo Ren, but Ben Solo.

And that may have been the difference Rey had seen all along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is where you can help: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Secrets are revealed and visions are shared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last chapter before the epilogue! I hope you enjoy!

As soon as the Falcon landed on the coarse and sandy planet Tatooine, Rey grabbed Ben's hand and pulled him after her, pressing the button to let down the ramp as she excitedly laughed, "Follow me!"

The two of them rushed out of the ship, Rey leading the way and Ben slightly stumbling behind her with huge smiles on their faces while Poe and Finn both followed them slowly, yet stayed behind as soon as they got off of Han's ship and observed Rey and the man who had once casted a huge shadow on the galaxy as she showed him around the place she had called home after the war. 

Poe still couldn't fully understand why Rey would trust someone like him, someone who had caused so much harm to the people who she cared for. 

And he _really_ couldn't understand how she could have fallen _in love_ with him. Not after all he had done. 

_He may have changed his name and he may be less scary-looking,_ Poe thought, his eyes still on the two Force users wandering around the sandy homestead, _but has_ he _changed?_

"And here is where I train a new order of Jedi," Poe heard Rey explain as she showed Ben the small space she used to teach Force sensitive kids the ways of the Force. His eyes immediately went to Ben's face to catch his reaction, but whatever Poe was looking for, he didn't find. 

There was no trace of evil when he looked at him, not even a _hint_ of darkness in his eyes. The only thing he saw was a soft look on Ben's face and a small smile while he stared at Rey. Poe didn't witness a flash of anger or hatred in the son of his former General, he witnessed a man looking at the woman he was deeply in love with and staring at her as if he wanted to tell her that he would give up everything just for her.

And as Poe's gaze wandered to Rey, his own grim mask began to fade away as he noticed the smile on her face, a smile that lit up her whole face. 

A smile he hadn't seen in a while. And Poe suddenly relaxed at the sight of his friend being herself again.

"She really looks happy," Poe mumbled to Finn while still staring at Rey and Ben with a mixture of fear and relief swirling in his gut. 

"She really _is_ happy," corrected Finn putting a hand on his shoulder. 

Finn had probably felt Poe's doubt over whether or not they could trust Ben Solo and wanted to reassure him that they had to have faith in Rey, that she knew what she was doing, and he thanked Finn for it. If it weren't for him, he would've probably blasted Ben as soon as he saw him. But he didn't because Finn trusted their friend, and if he believed in her, then maybe Poe could also believe that Ben wasn't there to harm them anymore. 

"Why don't go ahead and get some rest?" Poe heard Rey tell Ben as she caressed his cheek longingly, "I still have something to take care of before we can go to the market." 

Ben then took her free hand and squeezed it before nodding and heading inside the house Rey had called home. And once he was out of sight, Rey let out a deep sigh and turned to face Poe and Finn before slowly making her way to them.

She glanced deeply into their eyes, her face painted with worry before she pointed out the obvious, "You want to know why he's here."

"Yeah, wouldn't hurt to know," Poe answered snarkier than he had intended to, causing Rey to inhale sharply and look at the place behind her. 

"Then come with me. I'll explain everything," she told them and began to lead the way.

Rey sat cross-legged in front of her friends and gestured for them to do the same. They were on the floor where she trained her Padawans and she started feeling really nervous as she began fidgeting with the hem of her shirt while Finn and Poe slowly seated themselves in front of her, waiting for her to explain the whole situation. 

But she was afraid to. Afraid they wouldn't understand. 

Rey knew what Ben had done, what _Kylo_ had done, and she knew that Poe and Finn most likely still saw him as the man who had wanted to snuff out the Resistance, who had killed his father and who had become Supreme Leader of the First Order. Rey knew that her friends probably feared that he would do it all again, but she needed to prove them wrong. 

She needed to explain, even if they wouldn't believe her. 

Rey took a deep breath, staring into the eyes of her best friends before explaining, "Ben and I are a dyad in the Force. We are _two_ that are _one whole_." She paused briefly as she took a moment to contemplate what to say next and then continued, "The connection Ben and I share has been unseen, _undetected,_ _for years_ until... until Starkiller Base. That was the first time we _realized_ that there was a connection between us that ran deeper than anything either one of us has ever felt. It was like our souls were intertwined, bound together against our own will. At least that was how it was at first...

"On Ahch-To though, when I had started training with Luke, we began to realize just how _strong_ our bond was as we were able to see, talk and _feel_ one another across the galaxy, and we began to see each other differently, _I_ began to see him differently by seeing the light inside of him, by believing that he could turn. 

"And he almost did turn when I had gone after him on the Supremacy to help him. He had killed Snoke when he had ordered Ben to kill me, and we fought side by side against the Praetorian Guards. After the fight, Ben offered me his hand, but we had wanted different things and I left. He was still clinging onto the dark side and wanted to rule the galaxy while I wanted to protect the galaxy and restore balance. I couldn't go the way he wanted me to. And that's when I feared he wouldn't turn.

"But he did, after our fight on the Death Star remains, after I told him that I had wanted to be with Ben, not Kylo. He turned and came for _me_ on Exegol, to fight by my side. But..." Rey paused to take another deep shuddering breath from the painful memory, "Palpatine revived himself with our Force energy and separated us. And when I woke up after having most of my Force energy sucked out of me, Ben was gone and it was just me against Palpatine. And once I had gathered all of my strength with the help of all the Jedi who came before me, I defeated the Emperor, but it had cost me dearly because I died soon after him," Rey told her friends causing Finn to inhale sharply and her eyes to fall on him as she read the hurt expression on his face. "When I woke up again, I was lying in Ben's arms and his face...," she paused to remember their last moments together on Exegol, "he was surprised and relieved that he was able to bring me back. Ben transferred his Force energy into my body to revive me and the price he had to pay was his own life as he vanished into my arms shortly after, leaving a hole inside my chest, inside my _soul,_ since then.

"It was hard for me to go on without him, without my other half, so I started looking for him by reaching out to him in the Force, but I always failed. I believed he didn't want to see me until Leia told me that Ben wasn't among the Force ghosts, and when she mentioned that there was a place where Ben _could_ be, namely the world between worlds, I immediately started my search for that place to find him and bring him back. Leia had told me that there was a chance Ben may be gone after all, but I didn't want to believe it, I _couldn't_ believe it, not if were a dyad, not if we were _one_ in the Force. 

"And I was right in denying his death. Our bond is _so strong,_ it kept him alive in the world between worlds, as if the Force wouldn't let one exist without the other, or in this case, _die_ without the other. And it seems to have always been that way," she finished with a small smile as she thought about the times the Force had separated them before either one of them could harm the other before staring between her friends with a knot in her throat and her heart hammering inside her chest. 

Both Finn and Poe wore unreadable expressions on their faces and Rey feared that they didn't believe her, that they couldn't understand. 

"Listen, I know he has done many bad things, but that was before he turned. Ben is a different person. He is sweet and kind and he is a part of me. When he was gone, I _knew_ a piece of me was missing and I couldn't continue living like that. I _had_ to bring him back, I _had_ to bring back my dyad, my _soulmate,"_ Rey explained still fearing their reaction. "I hope you can understand and accept my decision. I hope you can understand _why_ he is here."

After a long agonizing pause, Poe sighed and said with a confident grin, "Hey, as long as I can count on him being the opposite of Kylo Ren, I'm fine. But as soon as he even flinches or _thinks_ about going back to the dark side, I'll blast him." 

"Yeah, we trust you, Rey," Finn reassured her and Rey felt a huge weight fall off her shoulders.

She smiled feeling tears prickle in her eyes and got up, the other two following her notion as they embraced one another. 

"Thank you. This means so much to me," she sniffled. 

Poe pat her back and cleared his throat, eyeing Finn out of the corner of his eye, "I, uh, I'm going to head back to the Falcon. Something is bound to fall apart or start burning if I don't tend to it now," and left with a wink, leaving Rey and Finn staring at each other in silence.

Rey could tell by the inner turmoil in Finn that he wanted to tell her something, that he had always wanted to tell her something. But he was fighting the urge to do so.

He scratched the back of his head and pointed to the direction of the Falcon and suggested, "I should head over there, too. Poe probably needs more help than he thinks."

But before Finn could leave, Rey blurted, "I know you want to tell me something!" 

Finn stiffened and glanced at Rey a bit taken aback, asking, "What?"

"I know you want to tell me something," she repeated in a softer tone. "I... I can _feel_ it inside of you. What's wrong?" 

Rey could see her friend hesitate, searching for a way to come out with what he wanted to so urgently tell her as he searched her face, anxiety rippling through his dark eyes.

"I...I..." he struggled with words. Rey could sense how nervous her friend was, how _terrified_ he felt, and she softly placed a hand on his shoulder. 

"Hey," she whispered with a smile, "it's alright. You can trust me." 

Finn mirrored her smile and he relaxed under touch, taking a deep breath before telling her, "I'm Force sensitive, Rey. I've wanted to tell you for _so long_ because I didn't know how to handle it at first, but there never seemed to be the right time and-," he sighed letting his shoulders sag. "It's always been there, inside of me, but since I met you, I've been more aware of it. And I... I guess I'm trying to ask if you could help me? Help me control it, help me _work_ with it," Finn finished with a huge sigh staring at the floor in front of them.

Rey's grin grew wide and she wrapped her arms around her best friend, capturing him in her embrace. "I know, I've sensed it inside of you, too, I just waited until you would come to me and tell me about it," she admitted holding him tighter as he wrapped his arms relieved around her as well. "And I would be glad if you joined the other Padawans in learning more about the Force and how you can use it to maintain balance." 

"Thank you," Finn uttered, squeezing Rey once more before letting go. She could feel the relief and happiness swirl inside of him, making his presence shine brighter than before. 

She smiled sweetly and said, "No, thank _you_ , Finn, for trusting me." 

Rey knew that Finn understood what she meant and he softly placed a kiss on her forehead. "Always." 

He slowly left Rey's side to head to Poe, and as they parted ways her eyes fell upon the binary suns of Tatooine and Ben staring at them in the distance. She smiled to herself as she made her way to join him, the pull of his presence growing stronger the closer she got to him.

As soon as she stood by his side, facing the suns in front of them, she softly placed her hand into his and intertwined their fingers, causing him to gasp quietly at the intimacy of her touch. Rey knew he had sensed her coming to him, they couldn't hide from one another anymore, but she didn't mind. She didn't mind to know where he was, and she didn't mind that he knew where she was.

They stood in silence for a while as they stared into the distance together, simply enjoying each other's company until Ben spoke, "Thank you for coming for me, for bring me back."

Rey turned her attention to Ben and realized that he had been staring at her with a soft intensity in his dark eyes causing her cheeks to flare and her heart to flutter inside her chest.

"I'd do it again if I had to," she uttered softly, her eyes staring into his while they occasionally wandered to his mouth and she felt her lips ache for the touch of his. "I'd do anything to be with you, Ben." 

Ben gingerly brushed loose strands of hair from her face and rested his hand on her cheek, caressing her freckled skin as his eyes glanced at her eyes and then her lips, hesitating on the latter while slowly leaning into her, craning his neck as he got closer until she could faintly taste his breath on her lips before he finally captured them in a kiss.

Rey gasped once their lips intertwined as she began to see the familiar scenes of her vision from when they had touched hands on Ahch-To. The vision of her standing near a lake in a long gray dress, her hair having grown over her shoulders and Ben and her kissing one another. 

It was the vision of their future.

As their lips parted, Rey noticed Ben's eyes glisten before a smirk tugged on the corner of his mouth. But before Rey could tell Ben what she saw, he mumbled, "I saw it too. The vision, I saw it."

Rey smiled, sighing relieved at his words. It made her have hope, hope that the vision could come true after all now that Ben saw what she had when they had touched hands some time ago. 

They both stared at one another, chuckling before their gazes landed on Luke's childhood home, their _temporary_ home, in a comfortable silence. 

No words needed to be uttered at how they felt at that moment as they both saw a future so solid and clear, a future so close they could almost grab it.

Rey happily nuzzled her head against Ben's chest as he wrapped his arms around her figure, closing any unnecessary space between them as the suns set behind them, casting a dim light on the place they would reside in for a while before finding their new home. 

Before they made their vision come true after all this time apart.


	11. Epilogue

Ben exhaled nervously as he kneeled in the grass in front of his mother's tombstone, laying a small bouquet of handpicked flowers in front of the cold stone. 

It had been three years since his mother had passed, since she had used up all her strength to get in touch with him, to show him that she had still loved him and believed in him, and ever since he and Rey had moved to Naboo and had started their Jedi academy in his grandmother's old palace, Ben had arranged tombstones for his parents, for Luke, his grandfather and Rey's parents next to his grandmother's grave. It was the least Ben could do after all his family had to go through because of him. 

It was the least he could do to thank them for believing in the light that was inside him. 

He still felt guilty though, for causing so much harm to the galaxy, _to his family_ , and it had eaten at him all these years. And all those years, he hadn't been ready to face her, to look her in the eyes and accept that she was gone. 

But he was now.

Ben grazed his fingers over his mother's name and took a deep shuddering breath as he felt her presence loom behind him. 

"Hi Ben," he heard his mother say causing him to smile softly to himself before getting up to face her.

"Hi mom," Ben replied, his insides trembling. It had been the first time he had seen his mother in over twenty years and he had so much to say to her, so much to apologize for. He had so much to make up for. 

"It's been a long time," Leia pointed out, a hint of sadness in her strong voice. 

"I know," he admitted quavering while staring at the ground in front of him. Even though he had believed he could finally be able to face his mother, he knew it was going to be difficult after having been apart for so long. 

Ben could already feel tears fighting to break the surface as he remembered the last time he had seen his mother, shortly before he had left to train with Luke. She had held him close to her and brushed his hair out of his face, whispering to him that they would see each other again soon. 

And now, twenty-three years later, he was standing in front of his mother's ghost, seeing her for the first time since he had left, and praying for forgiveness. 

"Mom," croaked Ben with tears trickling down his cheeks just like they had when he had last seen her. 

She was staring up at him, a sincere smile on her face as she reached up to brush his hair out of his face. "I know, Ben. It's alright. You're home now."

He could feel his lower lip quiver as he slowly fell apart under his mother's touch and he let out a soft sob, "I wish we could've had more time." 

Leia's smile reached her wet eyes and she whispered, "We still _do,_ Ben. No one's ever really gone," causing her son to smirk and wipe away his tears with his sleeve, staring down at his mother with red-rimmed eyes as she rested her hand on his shoulder. 

"I like what you've done with the place," Leia pointed out, letting her arm fall to rest beside her. 

Ben turned to look at his grandmother's palace and answered, "Yeah. Rey and I figured the Padawans needed some more space to train. _We_ needed some more space."

After having spent a couple of months on Tatooine, Rey and Ben had decided to move as their Jedi Academy started to grow and they began to fear that once Force sensitive children from other planets would want to attend their academy, they would run out of living space. They had both pondered over where to go, and the memory of their shared vision had made itself visible in Ben's mind as he thought about the green grass and Rey standing by a lake until it occurred to him that there had been a place where they could go, a place that was big enough for them and their academy.

And Ben had been more than happy to bring Rey to the planet where Padmé had grown up, where his grandparents had fallen in love and gotten married, especially because she had always talked about the green forests on Takodana and about how much she loved the color green. Ben thought she deserved to live somewhere far from the reminder of her years of loneliness on Jakku, somewhere far from sand and complete isolation. 

And that place had been Naboo, their new home. 

Leia smirked and mentioned, "And I see you have started training Finn."

"Yeah," Ben chuckled, "he still doesn't quite like listening to me as much as he does to Rey, but he _really_ enjoys dueling me when we practice one-on-one combat. He's doing a good job though, and he's really nice. I get why Rey likes him."

"I can imagine," Leia lamented and turned to face Ben again, adding softly, "I'm _so_ proud of you, Ben."

He could feel himself break again, but this time not out of guilt, but because he missed her. He missed _them_. 

"I wish you could be here, the _both_ of you," Ben muttered as tears escaped his eyes again.

"Ben," his mother began and placed a hand on his chest, "your father and I will _always_ be with you."

" _Always_ ," he repeated in a whisper as he saw his mother's form slowly vanish into thin air before he placed a hand where hers had been moments before.

Above his heart.

Rey was standing on a field of yellow flowers near a lake staring longingly at the sunset as the rays reflected themselves on the golden ring wrapped around her finger while she rested her hands on her stomach. She was wearing a long gray dress out of Naboo's finest silk and her brown hair was flowing in light locks down her shoulders and swaying slightly in the cool breeze. 

Rey _loved_ Naboo. She loved the colors of the planet, the green grass, the blue sky and lakes, the flowers varying in colors and shapes. She loved _everything_ about their home. 

And what she loved the most was that she was finally happy. After long years of loneliness, of longing for belonging, Rey was happy. 

And that was because she was with her dyad. 

When Ben had told Rey that he had seen her vision when they had shared a kiss on Tatooine, Rey knew that what she had longed for years before would finally come true, and when Ben had proposed that they move to Naboo with their Padawans, Rey could not wait a moment longer on Tatooine. She had been finally ready to make their vision reality.

And now she was standing with her two feet on the soft grass and reminiscing about their past two and half years on Naboo. 

Rey remembered first arriving on the planet. She had been in awe at the many green planes and the breathtakingly blue lakes and when Ben had showed her the palace and told her that it would be their new home for them and their Padawans, Rey had broken out in tears and told him that she had never had a home this nice, a home where she didn't have to sleep crumpled up with one eye open in case someone would want to steal her belongings.

She could sleep safe and sound. 

After a couple of days after they had settled in, Rey and Ben had taken a walk to the nearest lake and when he had asked her if she would like to take a swim because she had eyed the water curiously, she had told him that she didn't know how, that growing up on Jakku she didn't have the oppurtunity to learn how to swim. 

That had been when Ben had started to teach her. It had been very awkward at first and Rey felt very self conscious when she had undressed and was left with her chest wrap and panties. And even though they had slept in the same bed since Rey had brought Ben back from the world between worlds, it had been the first time they had seen each other with hardly any clothes on. Or it had been the first time since _he_ had seen _her_ in her undergarments. 

Rey remembered that there had been a lot of blushing and soft touches as he had led her into the water, holding her hand and pulling her close to him so she wouldn't be afraid of drowning. She had first learned how to float, and he had held his hands under her back the whole time, assuring her that he would not let her go until she said so. And then, from time to time, he had taught her how to swim by using similar techniques until she was confident she could do so on her own. 

And ever since then, they had spent a lot of time by the lake where he would sometimes read to her on a blanket in the grass. Most of the stories he had read to her were from books his parents had read to him, giving her the satisfaction of hearing stories she hadn't heard when she had been a child. 

And Rey had taught Ben some things as well, like how to fix small, broken objects such as the old projector they had found while searching through his grandmother's belongings. She remembered how Ben's eyes had glistened when they had fixed the projector and it revealed pictures of his grandparents and how happy they had been before his grandfather had fallen to the dark side. They both looked at pictures of a young Anakin and Padmé on the planes of Naboo, laughing and holding each other, and pictures of their wedding, which Ben and Rey then seemed to have followed in their footsteps soon after as they had their own small wedding ceremony with their closest friends. 

All of those events had healed a deep wound of loneliness that Rey had carried in her chest and she sighed at the happy memories, knowing that there were only more to come as she sensed Ben approaching her until he stopped a couple of feet behind her causing her to glance over her shoulder to look at him as she flashed him a sincere smile.

"You are so beautiful," Ben uttered, looking at her with a warm glisten in his eyes as he came closer and she placed her hands on his chest while looking up at him. 

"It's because I'm so happy," she uttered as he caressed her cheek before drawing his lips closer to hers and capturing them into a lasting kiss. "And in love," she added when their lips parted.

Ben then rested his forehead against Rey's and shut his eyes. "I love you too," he echoed softly, yet Rey could sense the emotions swirling inside of her husband and asked, "Did you talk to her?"

Ben nodded, his eyes still shut. "I miss her."

"I do too," Rey acknowledged and pulled him into an embrace. She rested her head against his shoulder while they stood together in silence and lamented over his mother's passing.

It had been a while until Ben spoke again, his voice still husky with sadness while anxiety rippled through his eyes as he stared at her again. "And? Did you see the doctor?" 

Rey had felt the fear inside of Ben ever since they had found out that she was pregnant and she had known that he had been afraid that something bad might happen to her. 

But Rey couldn't help but smile at him as she traced the skin where his scar had once been. "Yes, the doctor said they're healthy and growing," she told him causing Ben's jaw to drop and stare at her with bright, wide eyes. 

" _They?_ " he repeated astonished, searching her face for a sign that what she said was true.

"Yes Ben," Rey grinned. "We're having twins."

His lips quickly parted into a smile and he picked her up to twirl her around as he kissed her again and again before finally letting her down. 

Rey knew Ben would have never thought he would become a father, not before they had met. Not before they had fallen in love. And Rey had always wanted to have a family, a family of her own because she had never had that growing up. She had never had a father or mother who took care of her. She had always been alone.

Until she became a part of the Resistance. Until she fell in love with Ben.

And now, Ben and Rey were going to be the parents she never had.

" _Twins_ ," Ben echoed and caressed her cheeks before planting a soft kiss on her forehead.

And they remained standing there together for a while longer as they bathed in their shared happiness while watching the sun set in the distance until they went back inside to break the news to their friends.

To their family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it, the last chapter of this story.   
> I want to thank everyone who cared to tag along and read this fic as it progressed and I hope you enjoy the ending I thought our favorite characters deserved.   
> Thank you so so much for your support by reading, commenting and giving this work some love! It means a lot to me and I just can't thank you enough!   
> And who knows... maybe I still have something in store... ;)


End file.
